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Kloeden clinches Adriatico triumph

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SAN BENEDETTO DEL TRONTO, Italy -- Germany's Andreas Kloeden won the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race on Tuesday and said his main target for the year is a Tour de France triumph.

Kloeden, who led by the standings by three seconds going into the final stage, finished safely in the middle of the peloton to win the week-long stage race by four seconds from Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen.

Kloeden's Astana team mate Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan was third, 13 seconds adrift.

Spain's Koldo Fernandez of the Euskaltel team won the seventh stage from Civitella del Tronto to San Benedetto del Tronto in a sprint finish from Australia's Stuart O'Grady and Gabriele Balducci of Italy.

It was Kloeden's 15th win of his 10-year professional career and his first for the Astana team, sponsored by companies from Kazakhstan.

"This is a great win for me and the Astana team. I won Paris-Nice in 2000 and now it's nice to have won the other big spring stage race," the 31-year-old told reporters.

"To be honest I started the race thinking I'd use it as training for the rest of the season but I felt good, our team was strong and so we raced the final stages to win.

"I won by only a few seconds but I was confident during the last stage and contested the first intermediary sprint to pick up an extra second.

"I have to thank the whole team for helping me win and I even got a call from the President of Kazakhstan congratulating me on my victory," Kloeden added.

Most of the riders in the Tirreno-Adriatico field will compete in Saturday's prestigious Milan-San Remo race but Kloeden is focusing specifically on the Tour de France in July.

"I'm not going to ride Milan-San Remo and neither is my teammate Vinokourov because we're stage race riders and wouldn't have a chance against all the sprinters," he said.

"I also don't want to risk crashing and ruining my season because the Tour de France is my big objective of the year. We're going to take on Ivan Basso and hopefully by riding together, one of us can win the Tour de France."

As a member of the T-Mobile team, Kloeden finished third in last year's Tour behind American Floyd Landis who faces being stripped of the title after testing positive for testosterone during the race.

Landis has denied any wrongdoing and is set to attend a hearing before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on May 14.

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