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Mario who? Petacchi wins again at Vuelta
The king is dead; long live the king
No, those weren’t obscene gestures from Alessandro Petacchi as he roared across the finish line victorious in Wednesday’s 165km fifth stage of the Vuelta a España.
Two fingers, then six and another four followed by another two -- that was Petacchi’s version of sign language for what has been his history-making season.
Petacchi became the first rider in history to win at least two stages in every major tour and wanted the rest of the world to know.
“I made signs to show that it wasn’t by chance that I won. If you win once you can say it’s just luck,” said Petacchi, who’s won 21 races this year.
Petacchi easily won the drag race against an out-gunned Angel Edo (Milaneza) into windy Zaragoza to make it two wins at the Vuelta. Six was for his Giro d’Italia victories and four for the stages he won in the first week of the Tour de France.
Petacchi’s win Monday made him the third rider in history to win stages in all three grand tours in the same year.
Petacchi’s run makes him the fastest man in cycling and helps everyone forget the early departure of the man who held that honor last year – some guy named Mario,if we recall correctly.
ONCE’s Isidro Nozal retained the overall lead in a blustery stage that saw the peloton blown to shreds across the wind-swept plains of Spain.
Winds rip the peloton
All remaining riders started Wednesday in sunny Soria high on the Spanish meseta, but the hours were numbered for Spanish revelation Jose Pecharromán who packed it in at the feed zone.
Pecharromán is Spain’s hottest prospect after beating Joseba Beloki at the Bicicleta Vasca and Roberto Heras at the Tour of Cataluyna, but those races were back in the early summer. Pecharromán said he tweaked his knee after over-training and came into the Vuelta not in top shape.
Problems with his Paternina team didn’t help either. Pecharromán has signed a lucrative deal with Quick Step and likely won’t race again this season for the Division II team.
It looked like Kelme’s Oscar Sevilla would soon be out of the race as well. The stage started fast out of Soria and “El Niño” was having serious troubles hanging on. Four riders quickly slipped off the front -- Igor Astarloa (Saeco), Mariano Piccoli (Lampre), Karsten Kroon (Rabobank) and David Navas (Relax) -- in what would be the day’s main move.
Runner-up in 2001, Sevilla’s season has been ruined by complications from a groin cyst that required two surgeries and forced him to miss the Tour de France. A crash in stage 3 into Santander didn’t help either.
“My legs were cold and I couldn’t push the pedals,” said Sevilla, who recovered to finish safely in the main bunch. “My muscles were tight from the crash and the cold from the past few days. My hip and elbow still hurt, but thanks to great work from my team I was able to catch back on.”
The leading quartet opened a gap that topped six minutes when the peloton hit the widen open, treeless plains of the Ebro River valley heading toward Zaragoza. The peloton was pelted with severe crosswinds blowing from the left side that soon split the bunch into three groups.
There were spectacular images on Spanish TV (OLN as well if you get it) of riders fighting for their lives to hang on to the wheel. U.S. Postal Service, iBanesto.com and ONCE took turns hammering the front of the peloton to force the selection.
None of the remaining contenders lost position, but Rabobank rider Levi Leipheimer was caught back in the third group and came across the line in 181st at 9:55 back.
With 50km to go, the main bunch was fighting strong crosswinds with the leaders hanging two minutes off the front. The peloton would get strung out like an accordion, then come back together again before splitting into new echelons or “abanicos,” as they’re called in Spanish.
Euskaltel-Euskadi put down an impressive demonstration on how to bridge echelons when it sent back three riders to tow up Gorka Gonzalez, who got caught out of position and lost contact with the lead group. The Euskaltels, along with two Paternina riders, put down the hammer and bridged their young charge into the lead group.
Petacchi again
Telekom and Fassa Bortolo ended the leading four’s adventure after the peloton turned with the winds pushing them into Zaragoza to set up the sprint finish. Fassa set up a nice train for Petacchi when Lampre’s Alessandro Cortinovis clipped the race fence and went down very hard.
Cortinovis was taken away by stretcher to a local hospital and suffered cuts, abrasions and a fractured collarbone and jaw. The crash seemed to break the tempo of the final sprint, but Petacchi followed the wheel of a Fassa teammate and only Edo was in position to grab a ride.
Petacchi easily held off Edo while CSC’s Julian Dean took third. American Fred Rodriguez (Caldirola) slipped in to take sixth.
Petacchi is simply unstoppable in the sprints this season. He’s rarely lost in sprints he’s contested and his victory Wednesday marked the third time he’s won in Zaragoza.
He won there in the 2000 Vuelta and again this spring during the Tour of Aragon.
“I felt good at the finish even though the winds made it difficult earlier in the stage,” Petacchi said. “The team worked well today. Yesterday we were chasing the break, but none of the other teams were interested in collaborating so we just decided to wait for today.”
First exam on Friday
Despite the difficulties of many of the pre-race favorites, Thursday’s 43km time trial is the Vuelta’s first real test.
Time trial specialists such as Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE), Angel Casero (Bianchi) and Aitor Gonzalez (Fassa Bortolo) will be under pressure to open up some time on the climbers. Other favorites for victory include David Millar (Cofidis), winner of the final time trial at the Tour.
But with Casero and Gonzalez both languishing more than three minutes back, the real battle will be between the climbers. With three difficult climbing stages waiting in the Pyrenees starting Friday, the lithe climbers will be keen to limit damages between each other.
“This is really a climber’s Vuelta, so tomorrow is the first important stage,” said Team CSC’s sport director Johnny Weltz. “The climbers will be looking to limit the losses to the specialists, but it’s the first chance to really see who’s strong among the climbers. More important than losing time to the time trial specialists is not to lose too much time to the other climbers that you have to make up later.”
Race leader Nozal is nursing a 50-second lead and said he’s going to put everything into conserving the leader’s jersey.
To see how the day's stage unfolded, just Click Here .
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