Robbie Hunter Sprints to Victory in India
2/13/11 - Team RadioShack’s Robbie Hunter (South Africa) sprinted to victory in the Mumbai Cyclothon on Sunday, the second leg of the Tour de Mumbai (UCI 1.1). In Mumbai Hunter outsprinted Italian Elia Viviani (Liquigas), the winner of the first leg in Nashik, and Britain’s Jonathan McEvoy (Motorpoint).
“Robbie McEwen flatted with about three kilometers to go,” explained a delighted Hunter. “It was impossible for him to get a wheel or a bike change and come back for the sprint, that’s why I had to do the sprint. I put myself on the wheel of Viviani. There was a strong head wind and with only 200 meters to go Viviani was still waiting and waiting. So I headed out. Maybe Viviani judged the head wind really wrong. He reacted when I went, but he came too late. I am happy to offer the victory to the Team. We won’t complain about our start of the season.”
“It was harder than expected,” said Team Director Alain Gallopin. “We planned to put one of our riders in a breakaway, but that didn’t work. Finally there was a long breakaway of nine riders with none of our riders, so we had to chase. With five riders at the start, and saving McEwen and Hunter for the sprint, we had to do the chasing job with only three riders. Liquigas helped with three riders too, but all other teams refused to help. We only brought back the last guy with 5 K to go. Bad luck for Robbie McEwen again. His flat tire was our only flat tire of the day, but it came again at the wrong moment.”
“I had to lead out the sprint for Robbie McEwen as he was second in the first race and there were overall points up for grabs in the points classification with nice prize money,” continued Robbie Hunter. “Robbie really wanted to win the first race and with his flat tire it didn’t work out. Today it was the same story, so he will start in his next race with a real big motivation. It’s just a question of time. McEwen’s next race will be the Tour of Sardinia. I will start in the Ruta del Sol and Paris-Nice,” Hunter concluded.
Robbie Hunter was surprised at the level of the races in India: “Especially the race in Nashik, it was a pretty good and long race. Today it was a circuit race in the city of Mumbai, which is of course hectic, but the police and the organization did a good job. Obviously it is a long way to come for two one-day races but it turned out really good. It was good racing.”
Mumbai Cyclothon Results
1 Robbie Hunter (Team RadioShack); 2 Elia Viviani; 3 Jonathan McEvoy; 4 Ian Wilkinson; 5 Ian Bibby; 6 Malcolm Lange; 7 Hossein Nateghi; 8 Tyler Day; 9 Tiziano Dall’Antonia; 10 Alessandro Bazzana
