Kiryienka crowns Movistar Team’s 16th
19 June 2011

Despite misfortune hitting big time Movistar Team during the last months, the riders from the group directed by Eusebio Unzué continue with their excellent season, not only on race protagonism, but also on results. Vasil Kiryienka notched up the sixteenth victory of the telephone squad in 2011 after winning the overall classification of the Route du Sud, where the Belarusian ride took the red jersey in the last mountain stage.

Movistar Team controlled the race to perfection during the final ride, 143k into Pau, leaving a 5-rider attempt not dangerous for Kiryienka going for the victory, taken by Spaniard Luis Ángel Maté (COF), while also avoiding the telephone squad’s festival as youngster Enrique Sanz overcame the rest of the sprinters into the bunch. Apart from Kiryienka’s victory, Movistar Team also took the teams’ overall clasification on French soil at the last stagerace -the National championships will be coming next week- before the Tour de France.

Soler stable as Tour de Suisse ends
At the Tour de Suisse, American Levi Leipheimer (RSH) took the final victory after the last stage, a 32k individual time trial in Schaffhausen where the Movistar Team riders rode at a good level, with Rojas and Samoilau ending 14th and 16th respectively at the GC. The Helvetic race ends with the bitter memory of the crash by Mauricio Soler, the Blue team’s leader for the race who took a stage victory and a day in yellow before his accident. The group managed to recover from the strike and showed a notable level, confirmed by their 3rd place in the teams’ overall in a top-ranked race.

Mauricio Soler is still in the ICU of the Hospital St. Gallen, where he’s staying since last Thursday’s crash on stage 6 of the event. The Colombian Movistar Team rider’s condition is stable, and the doctors assisting him have started reducing the doses of medicines on him since his admission to keep him under induced coma.