FINAL KM today rounds up the action at both the Queen stage of La Med and the Vuelta Ciclista Murcia. Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning ….

La Méditerranéenne, Stage 3, Cadolive to Pegomas, 180.5km

Astana’s Andrei Grivko attacked out of a group of 16 riders on the last climb and held the chasers at bay to take a fine solo win and the race lead. The break disintegrated on the swooping 8km plunge to the finish, Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) arrived 18secs later with Ag2r’s Jan Bakelants a further 4secs back. With one stage to go Grivko is the new race leader by 18secs from Ladagnous and 40secs from Bakelants. Astana have just six riders on their team yet were in all the right moves, can they do so one last time? It was tough day out. Cold, wet weather, a fierce pace, and constant attacks left 27 unable to finish and 9 riding in over the time limit.

Vuelta Ciclista Murcia, San Javier to Murcia, 199.3km

A  bobby dazzler of a four-way sprint finish saw Philippe Gilbert (BMC) pip Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) for his first win of the season. The win was set up perfectly by PhilGil’s team with Ben Hermans and Tejay Van Garderen leading the charge – watch out for them in the Spring!

Links:

Official site for La Méditerranéenne, Twitter #LaMediterraneenne

Official site for Vuelta Ciclista Murcia, Twitter #VueltaMurcia

Header image: Andrei Grivko after his solo win