Team RadioShack's Andreas Klöden Wins Tour of Basque Country 2011
Germany's Andreas Kloeden of Team RadioShack won the overall classification of the Tour of the Basque Country 2011 for a second time on Saturday. Klöden won the Basque Tour ahead of RadioShack teammate Christopher Horner and Robert Gesink of Team Rabobank.
Germany's Andreas Kloeden of Team RadioShack won the overall classification of the Tour of the Basque Country 2011 for a second time on Saturday. Klöden won the Basque Tour ahead of RadioShack teammate Christopher Horner and Robert Gesink of Team Rabobank.
The 35-year-old RadioShack rider last won the Tour of the Basque Country in 2000.
The final stage, an individual time trial starting and finishing in Zalla, was won by Germany's Tony Martin (Team HTC-Highroad) ahead of Kloeden and Italy's Marco Pinotti (Team HTC-HighRoad).
"The goal of the week here was to win today, and that's what I've acheived," Martin told Roadcycling.com and our mobile sister site Roadcycling.mobi afterward.
"I had a bit of a break after Paris-Nice and when I started this race I knew that I wasn't going to be at 100 percent straight away."
"But I've ended the race in great condition, and this win is the confirmation."
Martin said that the very hilly time trial course in Zalla was so tough that he had to be careful not to go 100 percent from the start.
"It was a very easy course to miscalculate your strength because it was so technical and there was a lot of climbing."
"I had problems on one bend on a descent, I braked too hard, but apart from that it went pretty well."
"The key was making sure you didn't go too hard in the first part and I had enough strength to finish at 100 percent."
Watch video highlights from the Tour of the Basque Country 2011 in our Roadcycling.com videos section.