Last years Tour de France was quite interesting for the Kazak cyclist Alexander Vinokourov who had ambitions of his own while riding along side T-Mobile team leader Jan Ullrich. While Vino had a sense of duty to Jan their were more than one occasions where he worried more about his standing in the race than Jan’s.
It was no surprise later in the summer when word got out that Vinokourov was looking for a new sponsor and a new lease on cycling. Several teams were interested in Vino however it was the Spanish team of Liberty Seguros who was able to add him to their roaster. Word is that this years Tour de France Vino will be the team leader, so far the early season has been good to Vinokourov as he has taken the overall victory in the five-day Tour of Castille and Leon.
Turning on the power in the final 100m of the 147.1km stage between La Granja and Segovia, the Liberty Seguros rider out paced Spain’s Aketza Pena to ease to the stage victory. Vinokourov finished 21 seconds ahead of team mate Luis Leon Sanchez and 26 clear of Discovery Channel rider Jose Luis Rubiera in the overall standings.
This year leading up to the TDF Vinokourov has taken a light race schedule with his next appearance being Liege-Bastogne-Liege the spring classic in Belgium in April he won last year. His only other race before the Tour will be the Dauphine Libere stage race in early June, an event he won in 1999.
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