NNorwegian rider Pal-Anders Ullevalseter wins the Santa Rosa stage today. His first stage win so far. Misfortunes never come alone, but luck clearly doesn't either. The Norwegian moves up to second place in the standings with this result.
Pal-Anders Ullevalseter is such a typical eternal second. The Norwegian can no longer count on two hands the number of second and third places he has already achieved in his career, but a win was not yet possible. On his path he always encountered riders like Despres and Coma. This time it took until the last part of the stage before he spotted Despres and was able to overtake. A final sprint ensured that the Frenchman was eventually put at 43”. Final victory is already beckoning for Despres. They still have 666 km to go, of which only 202 km are special, before they reach Buenos Aires, which seems to us not enough to make up for a gap of 1h 4'12".
Hans-Jos Liefhebber was the fastest of the Dutch and crossed the finish line in 16de position. Knuiman followed four places further. Yet it was undercover Belgian Verhoestraete who, as 14de came in.
1. AFTER (FRA) KTM 49:38:44 00:00:00
2. ULLEVALSETER (NOR) KTM 50:42:56 01:04:12
3. LOPEZ CONTARDO (CHL) APRILIA 50:47:18 01:08:3
4. RODRIGUES (PRT) YAMAHA 50:59:25 01:20:41
5. FRETIGNE (FROM) YAMAHA 51:34:50 01:56:06 6. DUCLOS (FROM) KTM 51:37:50 01:59:06
7. STREET (USA) KTM 52:24:57 02:46:13
8. PRZEGONSKI (POL) KTM 52:52:21 03:13:37
9. PAIN (FROM) YAMAHA 53:06:47 03:28:03
10. PEDRERO GARCIA (ESP) KTM 53:09:41 03:30:57
17. KNUIMAN (NLD) KTM 58:16:59 08:38:15
20. VERHOESTRAETE (COG) KTM 58:56:03 09:17:19
24. ENTHUSIAST (NLD) KTM 61:13:00 11:34:16
25. ROBIN (FROM) KTM 61:20:37 11:41:53 01:00
41. DE GROOT (NLD) YAMAHA 65:58:11 16:19:27
44. VRUGGINK (NLD) HONDA 67:32:56 17:54:12
47. SNIJDERS (NLD) HONDA 68:28:38 18:49:54
68. PALANTE (BEL) HONDA 83:13:17 33:34:33
76. KRABBENBORG (NLD) HONDA 97:31:04 47:52:20
77. RESSING (NLD) HONDA 97:50:50 48:12:06
Photos credit: J. Van Oers
