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UPDATE 1-Cyling-Kloeden holds on for Tirreno-Adriatico win

(Adds quotes, detail)

By Stephen Farrand

SAN BENEDETTO DEL TRONTO, Italy, March 20 -
Germany's Andreas Kloeden won the Tirreno-Adriatico cycling race
on Tuesday after taking the overall lead the day before.

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 team
mate 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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