Menchov seals Murcia win

Brown took his second stage win of the week, having too much speed for Greg Henderson (Columbia-Highroad) and Argentine Juan Haedo (Saxo Bank) at the end of a 142.5km stage from Santiago de la Ribera to Murcia.

A group of 42 riders, including all the top men on GC, negotiated a third category climb with 11km to go to finish together.

Menchov finished 20 seconds ahead of Ruben Plaza of Liberty Seguros overall with Pieter Weening in third.

Denis Menchov is in line to win the Tour of Murcia after finishing in the lead group of ten on the penultimate stage in Alhama de Murcia.

Ruben Plaza of Liberty Seguros won the 156km stage but Rabobank's Menchov finished in third.

Team Columbia's Kanstantsin Sioutsou attacked on the first category climb of the Alto del Collado Bermejo with 23km to go and was joined by a group of four including Menchov and Plaza on the decent.

Rabobank's double Vuelta winner Menchov is 20 seconds ahead of Plaza with only Sunday's flat stage to Murcia to come.

Menchov's team-mate Pieter Weening was amongst five more riders who joined the leaders in the closing 2km and is third on GC, a further 14 seconds back.

Team Columbia's Frantisek Rabon won the third stage of the Tour of Murcia, winning the individual time trial around San Pedro del Pinatar.

The 25-year-old Czech national time trial champion powered around the 16km course in 19 minutes and 17 seconds.

He finished 19 seconds ahead of team-mate Bert Grabsch with double Vuelta winner Denis Menchov a further six seconds behind and his Rabobank colleague Koos Moerenhout fourth, 30 seconds behind Rabon.

Those positions and time gaps are duplicated on the general classification ahead of this weekend's concluding two stages.

Greg Henderson won a weather-shortened second stage on the Tour de Murcia, which saw the peloton paced for several kilometres as a safety precaution.

Winds in excess of 80kmph prompted organisers to shorten the race by almost 75km to 100km before the start, but the conditions were so bad that the race was brought to a finish at the 65km mark.

After being grouped together and paced, the peloton regrouped for the final 20km but only raced the closing 3km – with Henderson out-gunning Ruben Perez and Julian Dean to take victory.

Australia's Graeme Brown won the first stage of the Tour of Murcia to take the early lead.

Brown, who rides for the Rabobank team, finished the 192km stage in five hours six mintes and 37 seconds after winning a spring finish to edge New Zealander Greg Henderson, of Team Columbia, and Spain's Ruben Perez, of Euskaltel.

The day's riding between San Pedro del Pinatar and Lorca was marked by persistent strong winds, with the competitors having to climb over 700m to the day's highest point before descending over half that altitude to the end of the stage.