Koldo repeats Vendée trick

Vendée is officially Koldo's happy hunting ground. The sprinter, who rarely wins outside his homeland, repeated his 2008 feat by sprinting to victory in the Tour de Vendée today. The Alava native beat emerging speedster Appollonio into second by quite a substantial margin at the end of the 1.HC race, taking the team's tally of wins this year to an unprecedented 17. Speaking after the race, the amiable Koldo made an interesting point in comparing the Vendée region to the hilly Basque Country. "It's the second time I've won here, and I imagine that is because the Vendée region is like Euskadi; it's similar to the Basque Country. It was a difficult sprint 'cause I was on (Jimmy) Casper's wheel, and suddenly Haussler and Apollonio jumped. The got a 25-meter gap, but I succeeded in catching and then passing them." The whole team did their best to keep Koldo out of the wind and help him in the closing kilometres today. JJ Oroz and Nieve both stayed with the 27-man peloton 'till the line, while Txurruka was 11 seconds down in 31st place. Aramendía and Urtasun ended up 44 seconds in arrears, while young duo Izagirre and Castroviejo called it quits underway.