Astana hogged the top three spots on stage 1 of the Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia with Pello Bibao taking the honours after a late attack, and teammates Omar Fraile and Luis Leon Sanchez completing the set. World champion, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), finished fourth in the bunch sprint to the line, while Bilbao leads the race with one stage to go. The day belonged to Astana, who caught the early break, set a furious pace on the final incline and then launched attacks, first through Leon Sanchez, then Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang, and finally through stage winner Bilbao, who came into the race with strong form after a recent third place overall in Valenciana. It was the 28-year-old`s first win since the penultimate stage of last year`s Criterium du Dauphine. `It is a very nice victory for me! Honestly, it was not easy to do the decisive move today, because it was supposed to be a day for sprinters,` Bilbao said in a press release issued by his team.ADVERTISEMENT `We have fast guys in the team, but maybe not for the pure sprint. So, this was the reason we decided to do the last climb really hard to try to reduce the group to have more opportunities in the final. The team did an impressive work on the climb and we did not expect to create such a small leading group. Anyway, we decided to continue going 100% until the finish line. In the end, when we realized we arrive in this group, we started to attack thinking on stage victory. Luis Leon did a very strong attack, hard to follow, but Alejandro Valverde could close the gap. Immediately, Jakob made his attack, but he also was caught. My attack was the third one and I could get a small gap, which made me possible to arrive alone at the finish. So, for sure, it was an impressive team work and amazing team strategy at today`s stage. We can be proud with the result,` Bilbao added. The win represented Astana`s second victory of the season after new signing Ion Izagirre won the overall title in Valenciana. ...
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