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Vuelta: Another milestone for Petacchi
Petacchi now has four wins in each major tour
Alessandro Petacchi just can’t help himself. Even in the sloppy sprint finish at the end of Saturday’s 14th stage, the Fassa Bortolo strong man still had the legs to claim his fourth stage of the Vuelta a España.
Giovanni Lombardi (Domina Vacanze) tried to surprise Petacchi with an early sprint, but the Italian surged late to hold off Fred Rodriguez (Caldirola) by a half-bike length to claim victory.
“This certainly was the hardest stage to win,” said Petacchi, who came through in 3 hours, 44 minutes, 16 seconds (44.9 kph). “It was a very strange sprint. Lombardi started very early and I lost much of the efforts of my team.”
Rodriguez, meanwhile, is inching closer toward winning a stage. After coming into the Vuelta a little off-form due to a pre-race illness, Rodriguez has been active in the sprints after surviving the Pyrénées, finishing fourth in Stage 10 and third in Stage 12.
Rodriguez came within a half-bike length of snagging victory. Instead, it was Petacchi who added his fourth Vuelta win to go with his six Giro d’Italia victories and four Tour de France.
“I’m very happy to win this fourth victory,” said Petacchi, who regained the points jersey from Zabel. “It’s been an incredible year, with 23 victories. It will be difficult to repeat it next year.”
Petacchi’s victory will help ease the sting of losing defending Vuelta champion Aitor Gonzalez, who abandoned with illness after suffering through two stages. At 91km, Gonzalez dismounted his bike and retreated inside the Fassa Bortolo team car.
It’s been a disappointing season for the flamboyant Gonzalez, who surprised many with his breakthrough victory in last year’s Vuelta. Although he won a time trial stage at the Giro, he didn’t figure in the overall. He reloaded for the Tour de France, but pulled out in the first week with illness. He showed life in the Pyrénées, but lost time in Thursday’s echelons and figured poorly in Friday’s time trial.
“I’ve had a sore throat for the past few days and I’ve had trouble eating and sleeping. With the lack of sleep, it’s made it difficult to keep racing,” Gonzalez told Spanish TV. “This year has been full of health problems for me.”
La Pandera: Heras’ last chance
ONCE’s Isidro Nozal rode comfortably through the rolling stage to retain the overall leader’s jersey at 3:03 ahead of teammate Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano. The 25-year-old continues to be relaxed despite the growing pressure of wearing the race leader’s jersey.
“Today was more tranquil than yesterday. It came down to a sprint as well expected, so that was good,” Nozal said. “I hope to arrive to Madrid with the jersey. The ‘motor’ is ready for the fight that lies ahead.”
Peter Farazjin (Cofidis) didn’t start in Albacete and Gonzalez didn’t finish, leaving 165 riders in the Vuelta. A five-man break that included U.S. Postal’s Benoit Joachim chugged away early, but Fassa Bortolo did enough work to bring it back with about 65km to go. Four more riders tried to slip away in the final 40km, but the race was destined to come down to a sprint with Telekom keeping a lid on things into the finale.
U.S. Postal’s George Hincapie was hot on Lombardi’s wheel in the final sprint and ended up 12th. Hincapie, who overcame an illness in the first part of the Vuelta, said he’s feeling better but Saturday’s sprint wasn’t necessarily in the cards.
“I was helping Roberto (Heras) stay at the front and found myself in good position and tried a little something,” said Hincapie.
Hincapie said the mood at Postal Service is quietly upbeat following Heras’s fantastic time trial Friday, when the 2000 Vuelta champion lost less than two minutes to Nozal to remain the ONCE riders only real threat with a week left in the Vuelta..
While overall victory for Heras remains elusive – Heras is 5:13 behind the ONCE rider – the team expects Heras to shine in Sunday’s summit finish stage at La Pandera.
“Roberto is riding extremely well and hopefully he can make some time tomorrow. It would be nice to win the stage,” Hincapie said. “It’s going to be hard to make up five minutes to Nozal. He really needs to break down.”
Heras admitted it’s going to be difficult, but vowed to keep fighting. Heras couldn’t take any time in three summit finishes in the Pyrénées, stages he criticized as not being hard enough.
The La Pandera finish – while short at 8.3km – includes grades as much as 15 percent. That should be steep enough for Heras, who won there last year.
“We are going to try to cause them some pain in the mountains. There are a lot of time trials in this Vuelta, but I am going to keep fighting until Madrid,” Heras said. “La Pandera is better for me because it’s steeper. I know it well, it’s a climb more for climbers. Nozal must fail for me to have real chances of winning this Vuelta.”
After starting in Valdepeñas, the stage pushes south past olive groves to Jaén, home of fourth-place rider Manuel Beltran (USPS), before the final push to the Sierra de la Pandera. The climbing begins at Jaén at 137km as the course rolls up an unrated climb before hitting the Category 2 Alto de los Villares that tops out at 159.6km.
The opening ramps of the 8.3km La Pandera climb are brutal, with sections as steep as 14 percent in the first kilometer. The climb evens out with 6 percent grades until two sections as steep as 15 percent at 4km and 5.4km, respectively. The climb continues at 7 percent until 7.4km and actually goes downhill for 400 meters before the final 700 meters with a grade of 8 percent to the finish. The average grade for the climb is 6.4 percent.
All eyes will be on U.S. Postal to drive hard to keep the peloton together into Jaén, then it will be Heras vs. Nozal.
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