Colombia-Coldeportes’ Rodolfo Torres does not give up easily: even after the two mountain stages were gone, the 27-year-old Colombian showed off even in the final stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia-Ruta del Sol, Montilla-Alhaurin de la Torre (170,9 km), eventually ended in a mass sprint neatly won by Juan Josè Lobato (Movistar), while Chris Froome(Team Sky) secured the overall classification.

Torres was among the starters of a breakaway attempt initiated 10 km into the stage by Hoogerland (Roompot), Bilbao (Caja Rural-RGA), Jim and Kudus (MTN-Qhuebeka), Paterski (CCC) and Víctor Martín (Burgos BH), opening a 3-minute maximum advantage in a finally sunny day, beautifully enlighting the sight on the Southern Andalucia, and characterized by a consistent wind, blowing behind the riders in the last part of the race. Behind the break, Alberto Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxo team kept the pace high, hoping to manage to get back the 2 seconds needed to reclaim the leader’s jersey from Chris Froome: with 50 km to the line, the escape’s advantage was already under a minute.

At that moment, a puncture interrupted Rodolfo Torres’ action: assisted by the neutral service, Torres rejoined the frontrunners before needing a second wheel change and being forced to start a second chase, ended with a bad turn and an offroad excursion. At the front remained only Hoogerland, Kudus and Paterski, with the Pole being the last one to give up, at 8 km to go.

The final drag to Alhaurin de la Torre line saw another dominating display by Lobato, who took a perentory win over John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) and Sylvain Chavanel (IAM), while Froome, 6th, did not leave any space to the hopes of Contador, 9th. The best for Team Colombia-Coldeportes was Miguel Angel Rubiano, 33rd, while Edward Diaz (35th) climbed up to 21st in the overall standing: an encouraging result for the 20-year-old prospect. The Escarabajos also claimed the seventh spot in the overall teams classification, behind the winners from Team Sky.

The final wrap-up by Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli was concrete, but still encouraging: “It is impossible to deny that the first day’s crash totally messed up our race plans, particularly with regard to Alex Cano, whom we were wishing to see in full strength, but he was affected by the crash consequences all the way. It was not a good outing in terms of results, but still there were some highlights: first, the progression of Diaz, who provided another solid performance after San Luis, and still has much room for improvement, and the confirmation of Torres, who proved to be able to be competitive in spite of some episodes.

“In addition to this, I appreciated the strong team spirit this line-up showed: riders like Carlos Quintero, Miguel Angel Rubiano, Juan Pablo Valencia and Fabio Duarte gave everything they could for their teammates, and I think this is the base for greater performances and results.”

Next on for the Escarabajos will be two one-day races in France – Classic Sud Ardeche (February 28th) and La Drome Classic (March 1st) and GP Lugano in Switzerland (March 1st).