Venezuelan Cyclist Rujano Keeps his Place in Italian Tour
Venezuelan cyclist Jose Rujano kept the third place of the general classification of the Italian Tour Friday, after the dispute of the 18th stage, an individual counter clock between the cities of Chieri and Turin, over 34 kilometres (21.12 miles).

Rujano, a member of the Selle Italia-Colombia team, ended Friday in the 16th place in this stage, 1.59 minutes after Italian Ivan Basso (CSC), winner of the stage with a time of 45.05 minutes, followed by Russian Vladimir Karpets (Illes Balears) and US David Zabriskie (CSC), at 9 and 20 seconds, respectively, of the winner.

Italian Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) ended fourth with 45.28 minutes, and consolidated his leading position in the general classification of the Tour, with 82:10.18 hours, followed by Italian Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) and Rujano, at 2.09 and 3.00 minutes respectively.

Despite the race"s characteristic -there was flat ground to run most of the time- with a slight hill up to Superga, Rujano resisted the push of his rivals to keep his third place in the general classification.

The group will have to be able to run 118 miles between Savigliano and Sestriere, with two hills: one in Sestiere -to climb twice- and another one in Las Ventanas, which is the most demanding of the whole Italian Tour, because it reaches 2.5 km high with an angle between 10 and 14 percent.