Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi continued to rack up wins at the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday, posting stage victory #4 this year and the 16th in his career.
The overall standings remain unchanged, with Denis Menchov (Rabobank) in 1st, followed by Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros) 47 seconds behind and Francisco Mancebo (Illes Balears) in 3rd, trailing 1-minute and 53 seconds. Full results are at CyclingNews.
The 82-mile bicycle race from Logrono to Burgos featured just two hills mid-stage, and mostly level terrain the final 20 miles or so.
Petacchi's Fassa Bortolo team had a little battle with Quick Step and Liquigas heading into the final miles to put itself in the lead; those teams have had problems all along establishing their leaders Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Marco Zanotti (Liquigas) in the final sprint.
Fassa took the lead-out with about a mile to go, finally catapulting Petacchi across the finish with Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) about a bike-length behind.
The first stage after a rest day was marred, however, by a crash that sent Heras to the race doctor twice with a bloody knee. Team CSC cyclist Jakob Piil was rushed to the hospital via ambulance with a possible concussion.
The highest placed American is still Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) in 6th, 5-minutes and 3 seconds behind Menchov.
Recent Comments