ONCE Take First Stage Of The Volta A Catalunya
The French may have the Dauphinй Libйrй for the Tour-men, but here in Spain we have the Volta a Catalunya, “Big Tex” is’nt here, but all the other contenders are!
As usual the ONCE/Eroski team showed all the others how to ride a team time trial, cool and well drilled they took the stage and put Xavier Florencio, local boy from Tarragona, into the leaders jersey.
The first stage of seven in this years Volta a Catalunya, was a team time trial round the Puerto Aventura Theme Park, a Disneyland but without Micky etc. The stage started in Salou and finished in Vilaseca after 26.7 kilometres.
Kelme did not look too good, they lost three men to finish with five. For Telekom the strong man was not time trial world champ, Santi Botero, but sprinter Erik Zabel who lead them over the line. Rabobank were in the lead for a long time, but the two strongest squads, US Postal and ONCE were just too fast.
Tomorrows stage is from Mora D’Ebre to El Morrell, 183.6 kilometres, one 2nd. cat and two 3rd. cat climbs, the last one 70 kilometres from the finish.
Stage 1 Result:
1st. ONCE 25:32.
2nd. US Postal at 3 secs.
3rd. Rabobank at 13 secs.
4th. Fassa Bortolo at 25 secs.
5th. ibanesto.com at 26 secs.
6th. Telekom at 32 secs.
Overall After Stage 1:
1st. X.Florencio ONCE 25:32.
2nd. J.Rodriguez ONCE same time.
3rd. A.Vicioso ONCE same time.
4th. J.Hruska ONCE same time.
5th. R.Andrle ONCE same time.
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