23rd Castilla y Leon 2008 - stage 4

Stage four of the 23rd Castilla y Leon, from Carrion De Los Condes to Montana Palentina.

When the profile shows mountains Team Astana fans know 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador will come out to play. The fourth stage provided the perfect setting to continue making his point that he and his team are the strongest in the peloton and deserve to ride in cycling’s best races.

With an attack some 4km from the summit of the Collada de Salcedillo, Astana’s Levi Leipheimer made the way clear for teammate Contador. Columbian rider and King of the Mountains of last Tour de France, Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) went after Leipheimer but Contador followed easily. He made his decisive move at just under 3km to go and crossed the line a full 11 seconds in front of Soler and 33 back to Dekker.

Alberto Contador was very happy with his 2nd victory of the season. “Our Astana Cycling Team worked again so hard for me. Therefore I really wanted to win this stage with its difficult finish. I knew Soler would be dangerous, but I had no difficulties to follow him and shake him off.”

1 1 CONTADOR, Alberto ASTANA 03:54:17
2 98 SOLER, Mauricio BARLOWORLD a 11
3 42 DEKKER, Thomas RABOBANK a 33
4 155 PARDILLA, Sergio BURGOS MONUMENTAL a 33
5 41 MENCHOV, Denis RABOBANK a 33
6 47 MOLLEMA, Bauke RABOBANK a 43
7 52 SORENSEN, Chris TEAM CSC a 49
8 37 DE LA FUENTE, David SAUNIER DUVAL-SCOTT a 59
9 62 ANDONOV, Danail BENFICA a 01:03
10 27 RUJANO, José CAISSE D`EPARGNE a 01:05

General Classification
1 1 CONTADOR, Alberto ASTANA 11 :59:09
2 98 SOLER, Mauricio BARLOWORLD a 39
3 42 DEKKER, Thomas RABOBANK a 46
4 4 LEIPHEIMER, Levi ASTANA a 01:09
5 41 MENCHOV, Denis RABOBANK a 01:23
6 47 MOLLEMA, Bauke RABOBANK a 01:30
7 96 DUEÑAS, Moises BARLOWORLD a 01:40
8 155 PARDILLA, Sergio BURGOS MONUMENTAL a 01:42
9 111 MOSQUERA, Ezequiel KARPIN GALICIA a 01:55
10 75 VANDEVELDE, Christian SLIPSTREAM CHIPOTLE a 01:55

Stages
The 23rd Castilla y Leon 2008 is made up of five stages from March 24/28 -
Stage 1 - VALSAIN – LA GRANJA DE SAN ILDEFONSO 9,7 Km
Stage 2 - SEGOVIA - ÁVILA 141,7 Km
Stage 3 - VALLADOLID - VILLA DEL LIBRO DE URUEÑA 159,9 Km
Satge 4 - CARRIÓN DE LOS CONDES - MONTAÑA PALENTINA (Collada de Salcedillo) 160,8 Km
Stage 5 = GUARDO - RIAÑO 158 Km