La Vuelta Stage 4: Which Sprinter Today?

Another day for the sprinters? A mostly down hill course of 167.5 kilometers from Soria to Zaragoza will suit the fast finishers, one small 3rd. cat climb, the Puerto de Lanzas Agudas, and not much else, lets hope it doesn’t rain again.

The start was at over 1,000 meters altitude and the finish is at 200 meters, so should be a fast day in the saddle. Past winners in Zaragoza include De Vlaeminck, J.Planckaert, Van Poppel, Jalabert and Alessandro Petacchi in the year 2000, so no donkeys have won here.

This part of Spain is very flat and nobody lives here, so you can imagine the excitement being generated between the occasional small villages, yea, none. A nice strong cross wind and narrow roads are causing a few crashes, no body badly hurt but a lot of annoying little injuries and broken wheels.

A group of four managed to go away and gain 3 minutes with 65 kilometers to the line in Zaragoza. They were being chased by (predictably) U.S. Postal, but without much anger in it. The four were Xavier Florencio (Relax), Iсaki Isasi (Euskaltel), David Fernandez (Paternina) and Julien Laidoun (Ag2r).

The action was all going on at the back of the bunch with riders getting dropped, most of the big names were safe, except Cardenas, Del Rio and six riders from Illes Balears, as soon as they get back, then Giro champ Damiano Conego (Saeco) crashes and four of his men wait to get him back in contact along with World Champ Astarloa (Lampre) with a rear puncture. Next to have problems was Joseba Beloki, so the Saunier Duval team were next to drop back.

With 20 kilometers left the peloton was all together and into a head wind and keeping the speed down to 29 kilometers an hour. Astarloza (Ag2r), Roesems (Relax), Collom (Illes Balears) and Herrero (Paternina) tried there luck and got a half a minute lead with 13 kilometer out, but it looked like a failed attempt with the sprinters teams just getting warmed up. T-Mobile pulled it all together for Zabel in the last 4 kms, then it was Fassa Bortolo, but with no sign of Petacchi or Zabel. The speed had gone up to 50 kph. They all got to the front in time for the line and it was a tight finish between Freire, Zabel and Petacchi. Petacchi took it in the closest finish we have had yet.

Yesterday in Burgos at the stage start there was a problem with a 26 year old British person walking through the riders at the start, a description of the man has been circulated by the Guardia Civil.

Tomorrows stage is up hill, but not much. A 186.5 kilometers from Zaragoza to Morrella, a second cat climb, the Puerto de Torremirу is 11 kilometers from the finish and the finish gets classed as a 3rd cat climb, the last 900 meters is at 5% with light corners, then flat 100 meters to the line.

Stage 4 Result.

1є PETACCHI, Alessandro ITA FAS in 4:23:01
2є ZABEL, Erik GER TMO all same time
3є FREIRE, Oscar ESP RAB
4є O’GRADY, Stuart AUS COF
5є FURLAN, Angelo ITA ALS
6є BONOMI, Giosue ITA SAE
7є MARTIN PERDIGUERO, M.A. ESP SDV
8є HORRILLO, Pedro ESP QSD
9є COYOT, Arnaud FRA COF
10є PAOLINI, Luca ITA QSD

Overall After Stage 4:

1є JOACHIM, Benoit LUX USP in 13:38:59
2є VAN HEESWIJK, Max NED USP at 18
3є BELTRAN, Manuel ESP USP at 24
4є BARRY ,Michael CAN USP at 24
5є LANDIS, Floyd USA USP at 24
6є PEСA, Victor Hugo COL USP at 24
7є ZABRISKIE, David USA USP at 24
8є VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO at 40
9є EVANS, Cadel AUS TMO at 40
10єVALVERDE, Alejandro ESP KEL at 47

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