by Bart Hazen

On 13th February 129 riders gathered for the 32nd Vuelta a Cuba. The race has 13 stages in which stage 11 has two stages. The race will end on February 25th. Last year the race was won by Cuban Pedro Pablo Perez and he is riding to defend his title.

Stage 8 from Sancti Spiritus to Santa Clara was a win for Jesus Zarate. At 20 seconds it was Cavalli who was the best of the chasers ahead of Contreras. Pedro Pablo Perez remained in the lead.

Results: Stage 8
1 Jesus Zarate (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara 4.11.04
2 Gianluca Cavalli (Ita) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 0.20
3 Jose Contreras (Ven) Venezuela
4 Joel Solenzal (Cub) Sancti Spiritus
5 Pedro Pablo Perez (Cub) Cuba
6 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
7 Carlos Ochoa (Ven) Venezuela
8 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD
9 Francisco Matamoros (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
10 Pedro Sibila (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo

Stage 9 from Santa Clara to Cienfuegos ended up in a bunch sprint and Anthony Brea won his second stage followed by Coletta and Parra.

Stage 9
1 Anthony Brea (Ven) Venezuela 3.09.25
2 Gianluca Coletta (Ita) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD
3 Freddy Parra (Col) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
4 Pedro Pablo Perez (Cub) Cuba
5 Jorge Rojas (Cub) Sancti Spiritus
6 Noslen Funes (Cub) C.T Cienfuegos
7 Marsh Cooper (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
8 Bernardo Colex (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
9 Francisco Matamoros (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
10 Yosvani Barea (Cub) Holguin

Stage 10 from Cienfuegos to Cardenas was won by Jan Carlos Arias. He was the fastest in a break of 7 riders. Parra was 2nd and Smirnov 3rd, while Pedro Pablo Perez managed to hold onto the leaders jersey  with 4 stages to go.

Stage 10 Results:
4.20.59 (42.531 km/h)
1 Jan Carlos Arias (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo
2 Freddy Parra (Col) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
3 Vladimir Smirnov (Ltu) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD
4 David Salomon (Mex) Mexico
5 Dayren Lagrana (Cub) Matanzas
6 Marsh Cooper (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
7 Reinier Cardoso (Cub) Ciudad Habana
8 Alexey Shchebelin (Rus) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 4.21.16
9 Anthony Brea (Ven) Venezuela
10 Bruno Antero (Spa) Viña Magna Cropus

Stage 11 Canada's Svein Tuft snaps the whip.
Stage 11a was a individual time-trial over 30 km between Varadero and Matanzas. Canadian Svein Tuft of the Symmetrics Cycling team won with a hammer time of 33.39, an average of 53.492 km/h. Oleksander Kvachuk was 2nd at 1.22 and Arnold Alcolea 3rd at 2.11. Leader and defending champion Pedro Pablo Perez finished 5th at 2.22 and lost his lead to Tuft. Perez is now 2nd at 33 seconds.

Stage 11a Results ITT
33.39 (53.492 km/h)
1 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
2 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 1.22
3 Arnold Alcolea (Cub) Cuba 2.11
4 Carlos Ochoa (Ven) Venezuela 2.18
5 Pedro Pablo Perez (Cub) Cuba 2.22
6 Marcelino Esparza (Mex) Mexico 2.42
7 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team 2.49
8 Sergio Padilla (Spa) Viña Magna Cropus 3.05
9 Bernardo Colex (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara 3.20
10 Alien Garcia (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo 3.25

Stage 11b from Matanzas to Guanajay was won by a solo rider, Luis Macias. Coletta was 2nd at 2 seconds, Kvachuk 3rd at 4 seconds and the first chasing group with all the GC contenders at 13 seconds. No problems for Symmetrics riderTuft to keep his lead with 2 stages to go.

Stage 11b
3.31.02 (44.637 km/h)
1 Luis Macias (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
2 Gianluca Coletta (Ita) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 0.02
3 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 0.04
4 Marcelino Esparza (Mex) Mexico 0.13
5 Yunier Alonso (Cub) Habana
6 Sergio Padilla (Spa) Viña Magna Cropus
7 Arnold Alcolea (Cub) Cuba
8 Alien Garcia (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo
9 Ernesto Cano (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo
10 Fredy Buergos (Cub) Ciego de Avila

In stage 12 from Artemisa to Pinar del Rio, Lizardo Benitez was the best of a 10 men break. At 4 seconds it was Ernesto Cano in 2nd and Roger Rodriguez in 3rd. Svein Tuft remained in command.

Stage 12
2.50.56 (44.228 km/h)
1 Lizardo Benitez (Cub) Cuba
2 Ernesto Cano (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo 0.04
3 Roger Rodriguez (Cub) Pinar Del Rio
4 Eliodis Griñan (Cub) Guantanamo
5 Yasmani Martinez (Cub) Cuba
6 David Salomon (Mex) Mexico
7 Reinier Cardoso (Cub) Ciudad Habana
8 Yoandry Freire (Cub) C.T Cienfuegos
9 Yordenis Crespo (Cub) Matanzas
10 Seranis Gallardo (Cub) Guantanamo

Welcome to Habana - Stage 13
The final stage was a circuit race in Havana. And it was Venezuelan rider Anthony Brea who won the stage, his 3rd in this event. Pedro Pablo Perez was 2nd and Jan Carlos Arias 3rd.

Stage 13 (final stage)
1.53.38 (47.521 km/h)
1 Anthony Brea (Ven) Venezuela
2 Pedro Pablo Perez (Cub) Cuba
3 Jan Carlos Arias (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo
4 Victor Gomez (Spa) Viña Magna Cropus
5 Andrew Pinfold (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
6 Carlos Hernandez (Mex) Mexico
7 Alien Garcia (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo
8 Gianluca Coletta (Ita) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD
9 Jorge Rojas (Cub) Sancti Spiritus
10 Roger Rodriguez (Cub) Pinar Del Rio

Svein Tuft is the overall winner despite some boni seconds for Perez who finished 2nd at 25 seconds. Carlos Ochoa is 3rd at 1.04, Kvachuk 4th at 1.11 and Esparza 5th at 1.29.

Final classification
1 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team 44.15.03
2 Pedro Pablo Perez (Cub) Cuba 0.25
3 Carlos Ochoa (Ven) Venezuela 1.04
4 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 1.11
5 Marcelino Esparza (Mex) Mexico 1.29
6 Arnold Alcolea (Cub) Cuba 2.04
7 Sergio Padilla (Spa) Viña Magna Cropus 3.04
8 Bernardo Colex (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara 3.11
9 Adonis Cardoso (Cub) Cuba 3.25
10 Lizardo Benitez (Cub) Cuba 3.33
11 Gianluca Cavalli (Ita) Cinelli-Endeka-OPD 3.48
12 Antonio Cosme (Spa) Viña Magna Cropus 4.36
13 Jose Contreras (Ven) Venezuela 5.01
14 Pedro Sibila (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo 5.10
15 Jesus Zarate (Mex) Tecos de la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara 5.11
16 Joel Solenzal (Cub) Sancti Spiritus 5.17
17 Yoandry Freire (Cub) C.T Cienfuegos 5.56
18 Vicente Zanabria (Cub) Matanzas 6.07
19 Christian Meier (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team 7.15
20 Raul Granjel (Cub) ISCF Manuel Fajardo 7.49

Team Symmetrics
Our 2007 season has started and after winning 76 races and 350 podiums in 2006 things just keep getting better. We sent a 6 man team to the 32nd edition of the Vuelta Ciclista a Cuba which started on Feb 12 and finished today Feb 25th. The race had 14 stages in 13 days and the distance was 1900km of racing.

This is one of the longest and hardest races in the world next to the Tour de France.. Our team raced exceptionally well and on Thursday Feb 22 Svein Tuft took over the lead after the 30km Individual Time trial. Svein is the Canadian National Time trial Champion and we felt if he was within 2 minutes of the lead going into the TT he would take the lead. He was sitting 1:49 behind the leader going in the stage. He took the lead with 33 seconds to spare. Our team then protected him to the final stage today in Havana.

The team members were the following
Svein Tuft age 29 resides Langley BC
Christian Meier age 22 resides Langley BC
Marsh Cooper age 21 resides Langley BC
Andrew Randell age 33 reside Toronto Ont
Geoff Kabush age 28 resides Victoria BC
Andrew Pinfold Age 28 resides N Vancouver
Geoff Kabush has represented Canada in Mountain biking at numerous World/Commonwealth and Olympic games. Svein Tuft has represented Canada in Road Cycling at numerous World/Commonwealth Games and won 5 National Championships in 2006, Svein was also a member of the NRC Champion team Prime Alliance.
Christian Meier-Has represented Canada at the last 3 World Championships and won 2 National Championships in 2006
Marsh Cooper-Is our youngest team member and has represent Canada at World Championships and has many National titles
Andrew Pinfold Won the 2006 Tour de White Rock road race and overall title and the final stage of the 2006 Tour de Beauce in Quebec.

Most importantly we earned 67 UCI points.
This is critical for Canada for Olympic qualification. If Canada is in the top 5 nations of the UCI America's region at the end of the year we get additional starting spots in the Olympic road race and Time trial. Canada has a total of 125 UCI points and we currently sit 5th in this ranking. Of those 125 pts an amazing 105 have been earned by our team. This has our team sitting 1st in the Pro Team category of the UCI America's region.
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