Stages 5 to 8
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1996 Results
Stage 5, Vic-Vic, ITT, 22 kms:1. Chris Boardman (Britain) Gan 25.17 2. Aitor Garmendia (Spain) ONCE 0.46 3. Albe Leanizbarrutia (Spain) ONCE 0.51 4. Angel Luis Casero (Spain) Banesto 0.58 5. Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spain) ONCE 1.07 6. Bart Voskamp (Holland) TVM 1.12 7. Javier Pascual (Spain) Kelme 1.16 8. Viatcheslav Djavanian (Russia) Roslotto 1.21 9. Fernando Escartin (Spain) Kelme 1.22 10. Sergei Ivanov (Russia) TVM 1.23 GC after Stage 51. Boardman 14.59.43 2. Casero 1.10 3. Leanizbarrutia 1.24 4. Escartin 1.45 5. Zarrabeitia 1.47 6. Voskamp 1.48 7. Alvaro Gonzalez (Spain) Euskadi 2.03 8. Marino Alonso (Spain) Banesto 2.04 9. Ivanov 2.06 10. Pavel Tonkov (Russia) Mapei 2.07 Stage 5 ReportTime-trial specialist Chris Boardman increased his lead in the Tour of Catalonia with a resounding victory in Monday's fifth stage, in which he averaged more than 52 kph.The Briton, who holds the world one-hour record, carved out a 46-second advantage over second-placed Aitor Garmendia of Spain in Monday's 22-km time-trial and stretched his overall lead to more than a minute. Boardman, 12 seconds ahead of Spain's Angel Casero overnight, now leads Casero by one minute 10 seconds in the overall standings. Casero was one of only three riders to finish within a minute of the Briton in Monday's time-trial. Albe Leanizbarrutia, third ahead of compatriot Casero in the time-trial, moved up to third place overall. Boardman has worn the leader's jersey since winning the time-trial on the first day of the race. The best chance for his challengers could come on Tuesday. The 160-km sixth stage between Casa Tarradellas and Playa de Aro ends with a tough climb. Stage 6, Casa Tarradellas-Playa de Aro, 160 kms1. Fernando Escartin (Spain) Kelme 4.01.40 2. Daniel Clavero (Spain) Toscaf 0.08 3. Chris Boardman (GBR) Gan 0.09 4. Pavel Tonkov (Russia) Mapei 0.14 5. Enrico Zaina (Italy) Asics 0.23 6. Marcos Serrano (Spain) Kelme 0.23 7. Alex Shefer (Kazakhstan) Asics 0.23 8. Armand de las Cuevas (France) Banesto 0.36 9. Angel Casero (Spain) Banesto 0.37 10. Jose Luis Rubiera (Spain) Kelme 0.42 GC after Stage 61. Boardman 19.01.32 2. Escartin 1.36 3. Casero 1.38 4. Albe Leanizbarrutia (Spain) ONCE 2.10 5. Tonkov 2.12 6. Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spain) ONCE 2.20 7. Alvaro Gonzalez (Spain) Euskadi 2.43 8. Bart Voskamp (Holland) TVM 2.43 9. De las Cuevas 2.43 10. Clavero 2.50 Stage 6 ReportChris Boardman increased his lead in the Tour of Catalonia on Tuesday after showing he had the strength to stay with the climbers on the sixth stage.Boardman, a time-trial specialist, finished third, just nine seconds behind winner Fernando Escartin of Spain. With the other challengers wilting, Escartin moved into second place overall, one minute 36 seconds behind the British rider. The 160-km stage had proved largely uneventful until the tough four-km climb to the finish. Boardman, escorted by his Gan team mates, kept with the pace as a series of riders attempted to break for the line. Escartin finally got clear but Boardman and Spain's Daniel Clavero were able to keep him in sight. Escartin, a mountain expert, said afterwards the climb had been good preparation for Wednesday's stage. The 237-km leg between Gerona and Pal, in the mountain state of Andorra, is the toughest of the race and is the last realistic chance for Boardman's challengers to deny him overall victory. The stage includes three first category climbs, one at the finish. Stage 7, Gerona-Pal, 237 kms:1. Bo Hamburger (Denmark) TVM 7.02.22 2. Daniel Clavero (Spain) Toscaf 0.08 3. Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spain) ONCE 0.11 4. Fernando Escartin (Spain) Kelme 0.29 5. Angel Casero (Spain) Banesto s.t 6. Armand de las Cuevas (France) Banesto 0.39 7. Pavel Tonkov (Russia) Mapei 0.57 8. Cesar Solaun (Spain) Euskadi 1.00 9. Carlos Contreras (Columbia) F.Telekom 1.15 10. Paolo Lanfranchi (Italy) Mapei 1.18 11. Enrico Zaina (Ita) Asics 1.21 24. Chris Boardman (GB) GAN 7.11 41. Claudio Chiappucci (Ita) Asics 14.50 48. Alvaro Mejia (Col) Petroleo Colombia s.t. GC after Stage 71. Escartin 26.05.59 2. Casero 0.02 3. Zarrabeitia 0.28 4. Clavero 0.53 5. Tonkov 1.04 6. De las Cuevas 1.19 7. Hamburger 1.30 8. Solaun 2.07 9. Alonso Marino (Spain) Banesto 2.35 10. Orlando Rodriguez (Portugal) Banesto 2.52 13. Boardman 5.06 Preview of Stage 7With three cat. 1 climbs, the last one an uphill finish, this was designed to be the Volta's decisive stage. Nothing flat about this ride -- it's all up and down. The stage starts with a 115 km ascent from Girona (70 m) to Alt de la Creueta (1,916m), followed by a gradual descent to La Seu d'Urgell (km 170/660 m). Then it's across the Andorran border and up to Alt Collet de Montaup (km 212/1,990m). A sharp descent bottoms out near Ordino (km 224/about 1,000m), after which the excruciating climbing finish will take them to the "Pal" ski area and Cima Peris (1920m). The final race on Thursday is a semi-mountain stage beginning and finishing in Andorra (189 km) which shouldn't affect the GC order to be established tomorrow.Escartin looked awfully strong today; can't say much for the rest of the field, except Boardman and Clavero. Because of the lack of time differences in the Montserrat mountain stage, and because today's stage was designed to (and did) produce only nominal differences, we go into Stage 7 with a handful of real contenders within striking distance of the GC. It's anyone's guess, but I'm looking for Escartin to have another good day and win the GC; the rest of the main contenders don't seem to be in good form. What about the 2 Colombian teams, Petroleo Columbia and Flavia Telecom? Palacio (Fla) has been quietly wearing the mountain-man jersey without having distinguished himself in the important climbs. Perhaps one of them will come out of the woodwork tomorrow. As for Boardman, with a team of sprinters who probably won't be able to stay with him over the first climb he says he's expecting "a very frustrating day". The truth is, most didn't expect him to get this far, and he did finish 3rd in a short, but tough every-man-for-himself climb today. I think Boardman might make it to the podium in 2nd or 3rd if he has a fantastic day. Stage 7 ReportSpain's Fernando Escartin heads into the final day of the Tour of Catalonia with a two-second lead over compatriot Angel Luis Casero after Wednesday's seventh stage.Previous overall leader Chris Boardman of Britain was left behind in the climbs of the tough 237-km stage which was won by Dutch rider Bo Hamburger in seven hours, two minutes and 22 seconds. Hamburger clinched victory after breaking away from a group of six riders in the long climb to the finish. He was followed by Spaniards Daniel Clavero and Mikel Zarrabeitia who finished eight and 11 seconds behind respectively. With Hamburger posing no real threat in the overall classification, Escartin and Casero paid more attention to each other and were happy to come home nearly half a minute off the pace in fourth and fifth. Boardman, a time-trial specialist who had led the Tour since the first day, was unable to cope with the relentless pace set by Escartin and his Kelme teammates in the final section of the stage. The Kelme riders had also led the fight to haul in Italy's Diego Ferrari who built up a lead of nearly five minutes at the half-way point. The winners' podium could be decided in two tough climbs in Thursday's final stage which takes the riders over 189 km, starting and finishing in Andorra. Danish cyclist, Bo Hamburger, from Team TVM, has won the seventh stage of la Vuelta a Catalonia, disputed between Gerona & Pal, over 237km and considered the 'Queen Stage', which helped Spaniard Fernando Escartin (Kelme) to take the first place overall from Britain's Chris Boardman (Gan). The overall is being lead by Escartin followed by Angel Luis Casero at two seconds and Mikel Zarrabeitia at almost one minute. Kelme was able to complete their objective of placing Escartin in the lead, in a stage where they controlled all the attacks from their direct rivals and then imposing the rhythm over the final two category one climbs. Escartin's teammates did a great job, specially Marcos Serrano on the final section, with hard work before that by Francisco Benitez, Garcia Camacho and Javier Pascual, who caught every single attack, specially at the climb of la Creueta, where they allowed about 20 riders including Mikel Zarrabeitia to get away. Then they allowed an escape by Italian Diego Ferrari to leave at km 140, only to catch him at km 184. From this point on the race would change and both Banesto and ONCE tried to surprise Kelme, with no success, but causing leader Boardman to throw the towel when he was dropped after the first pulls. There were attempts by De las Cuevas, Zarrabeitia, Casero & company, but Kelme was very secured, first with Rubiera and then with Serrano, who brought a rested Escartin to the foot of the Pal, with the finish line on top of this one. Climbing the Montaup, on km 205, a group of about 20 was formed, which little by little was reduced, with all the riders on the overall, except Boardman in it. The climbing tempo was imposed by Kelme, to test the state of Escartin's rivals and to prevent and escapes, even after the attempts by De las Cuevas first and then by stage winner Hamburger. A dozen riders reached the foot of the Pal, which was further reduced to six at half-way up the 12km climb, which was when Hamburger took off. Left behind were Casero, Escartin, Zarrabeitia, De las Cuevas & Daniel Clavero. While Hamburger went for the victory the rest just guarded each other, until Clavero took off and dragged Zarrabeitia with less than 2km to go. Escartin wasn't concerned and he stayed with Casero, his most direct enemy, who didn't attack. Escartin and his Kelme team made their strategy for Stage 7 very clear before the race: drop Boardman early. "We can't escort Boardman to the last climb in an easy chair," commented Escartin Tuesday. He said this keeping in mind Boardman's 1 1/2 to 3 minute lead over his main rivals plus his convincing performance in Tuesday's climb. Just prior the race on Wed., another Kelme rider said they would attack on the second of three climbs, which is exactly what they did. A group of 30-40 riders pulled away from Boardman early in the ascent to Alt Collet de Moncaup, Kelme doing most of the work, and they did nothing but gradually increase their lead. Boardman had lost 3 minutes by the time they began the descent and on the final climb, it was an all-out battle for the GC and the stage. Marcos Serrano did a heroic job of pacing Escartin and the rest of the lead group up the most difficult part of the climb. Serrano finally gave out, leaving Escartin to be passed by Hamburger, Clavero and Zarrabeitia. Hamburger made a very strong showing in his stage win. In the end, Escartin didn't let Casero get past him, preserving his 2 second lead over the Banesto rider in the GC. Preview of Final Stage This minor mountain stage takes the riders out of Andorra into Catalonia once again, returning to Andorra for the finish. Only two climbs are categorized in the official race map, a 2nd at the 50 km mark and a 3rd at 112 km. The race ends on a 40 km gradual incline. There's no reason to think this stage will have any effect on the GC standings. Kelme will no doubt keep things under wraps, and if the pace gets brisk Escartin will be attracted to Casero's wheel like a magnet. But the terrain is suitable for some sort of breakaway. A group of riders (or an individual) who lost a lot of time yesterday might try to get away, hoping Escartin & Co. won't bother to chase them down. Escartin thanks his teammates (El Mundo Deportivo) - The leader and virtual winner praised, specially Serrano, "who did a great race". "In reality I only had to watch Casero and the tempo imposed by my teammates prevented him from attacking. They have all worked to perfection, but I would like to emnphasize Serrano's work, who que has raced a great race. Thanks to them, I didn't have the need to attack, simply by regulating the tempo of the teammate that was ahead of me was enough. When I was left alone with De las Cuevas & Casero in the final section I didn't get nervous because I only had control Casero. If they didn't try anything it was because they didn't have the strength after climbing to two ones". Alvaro Pino (Kelme's Director) was also happy. At the end Escartin was left with two Banesto riders: "Casero attacked with 500 meters to go, but Fernando grabbed his wheel and finished him up. They are tense moments, but I knew that he would respond". Stage 8, Andorra-Andorra1. Sergei Uchakov (Ukraine) Polti 5.07.47 2. Henk Vogels (Austria) Gan s.t. 3. Frederic Moncassin (France) Gan 0.03 4. Igor Flores (Spain) Euskadi 5. Paolo Lanfranchi (Italy) Mapei 6. Lars Michaelsen (Denmark) TVM 7. Daniele Sgnaolin (Italy) Roslotto 8. Orlando Rodrigues (Portugal) Banesto 9. Alberto Leanizbarrutia (Spain) ONCE 10. Andrei Zinchenko (Russia) Toscaf all s.t. Final Complete GC1. Fernando Escartin (Spain) Kelme 31.13.49 2. Angel Casero (Spain) Banesto 0.02 3. Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spain) ONCE 0.26 4. Daniel Clavero (Spain) Toscaf 0.53 5. Pavel Tonkov (Russia) Mapei 1.04 6. Armand de las Cuevas (France) Banesto 1.19 7. Bo Hamburger (Denmark) TVM 1.30 8. Cesar Solaun (Spain) Euskadi 2.07 9. Marino Alonso (Spain) Banesto 2.35 10. Rodrigues 2.52 11. LANFRANCHI, Paolo ITAMAPEI-GB 3.30 12. CONTRERAS, Carlos COLFLAVIA TELECOM 5.01 13. BOARDMAN, Christopher GBRGAN 5.06 14. URIA, Jose Manuel ESPESTEPONA-TOSCAF 6.18 15. LEAZNIBARRUTIA, Alberto ESPO.N.C.E. 6.20 16. LOPEZ, Oscar ESPEUSKADI 6.21 17. IVANOV, Serguei RUST.V.M. 6.34 18. CASTELBLANCO, Jose J. COLFLAVIA TELECOM 7.19 19. ZAINA, Enrico ITAASICS 7.38 20. SERRANO, Marcos ESPKELME-COSTA BLANCA 7.42 21. GONZALEZ, Alvaro ESPEUSKADI 7.49 22. RUBIERA, Jose Luis ESPKELME-COSTA BLANCA 7.59 23. OSA, Aitor ESPBANESTO 8.09 24. BENITEZ, Francisco ESPKELME-COSTA BLANCA 8.31 25. KOKORINE, Vitali RUSROSLOTTO-ZG MOBILI 8.37 26. SIERRA, Roberto ESPO.N.C.E. 12.19 27. GONZALEZ, I$igo ESPEUSKADI 14.19 28. JASKULA, Zenon POLMAPEI-GB 14.27 29. RAMIREZ, Juan D. COLFLAVIA TELECOM 16.10 30. DI GRANDE, Giuseppe ITAMAPEI-GB 16.47 31. PALACIO, Hector I. COLFLAVIA TELECOM 17.02 32. CA%ADA, David ESPO.N.C.E. 17.41 33. URIARTE, Jose Ramon ESPBANESTO 19.08 34. MU$OZ, Federico COLFLAVIA TELECOM 21.02 35. GARCIA, Ramon ESPESTEPONA-TOSCAF 21.51 36. AGUIRRE, Julio COLFLAVIA TELECOM 21.57 37. MEJIA, Alvaro COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 22.11 38. ZEN, Marco ITAROSLOTTO-ZG MOBILI 22.18 39. GARCIA, David ESPEUSKADI 22.29 40. CASTILLO, Juan Javier COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 22.30 41. SIMEONI, Filippo ITAASICS 23.15 42. BOLIVAR, Victor Hugo COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 23.19 43. GOMEZ, Raul COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 23.22 44. LAISEKA, Roberto ESPEUSKADI 23.49 45. BARRIGON, Josue ESPO.N.C.E. 24.10 46. CHIAPPUCCI, Claudio ITAASICS 24.16 47. TAFI, Andrea ITAMAPEI-GB 24.31 48. PRETOT, Arnaud FRAGAN 25.05 49. ANGUITA, Eleuterio ESPESTEPONA-TOSCAF 25.19 50. CHAURREAU, I$igo ESPTEAM POLTI 26.27 51. ROJAS, Alexis COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 27.21 52. MICHAELSEN, Lars DENT.V.M. 27.25 53. ZINTCHENKO, Andrei RUSESTEPONA-TOSCAF 30.09 54. MOLINARI, Maurizio ITAASICS 30.54 55. SGNAOLIN, Daniele ITAROSLOTTO-ZG MOBILI 31.26 56. HERRERA, Helder COLFLAVIA TELECOM 33.32 57. LEMARCHAND, Francois FRAGAN 34.40 58. TCHMIL, Andrei UKRLOTTO-ISOGLASS 35.04 59. BELLINI, Marco ITAASICS 35.16 60. AIARZAGUENA, I$aki ESPEUSKADI 37.12 61. OUTSCHAKOV, Serguei UKRTEAM POLTI 37.43 62. PASCUAL RODRIGUEZ, Javier ESPKELME-COSTA BLANCA 37.52 63. GUTIERREZ, Herbert COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 40.13 64. FLORES, Igor ESPEUSKADI 41.45 65. SKIBBY, Jesper DENT.V.M. 42.02 66. PEERS, Chris BELLOTTO-ISOGLASS 42.29 67. FERRARI, Diego ITAASICS 43.17 68. CREPALDI, Mirco ITATEAM POLTI 43.24 69. PETILLEAU, Stephane FRAT.V.M. 43.39 70. GARAVITO, Diego J. COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 44.58 71. GONTCHENKOV, Alexandre UKRROSLOTTO-ZG MOBILI 45.47 72. GARMENDIA, Aitor ESPO.N.C.E. 45.52 73. BERNAL, Jose Daniel COLPETROLEO COLOMBIA 46.24 74. BRASI, Rossano ITATEAM POLTI 46.58 75. VOGELS, Henk AUSGAN 47.24 76. VICARIO, Juan Carlos ESPESTEPONA-TOSCAF 47.44 77. APARICIO, Vicente ESPBANESTO 48.44 78. LANGELLA, Antony FRAGAN 49.15 79. MONCASSIN, Frederic FRAGAN 49.29 80. POLI, Eros ITAGAN 50.59 81. EDO, Angel ESPKELME-COSTA BLANCA 51.23 82. COLONNA, Federico ITAASICS 55.04 Final Stage ReportSpain's Fernando Escartin scored the most important win of his career on Thursday when he sealed victory in the Tour of Catalonia.Escartin won the race by just two seconds after sticking by second-placed Angel Casero throughout the final stage, which was won by Sergei Uchakov of Ukraine. Mikel Zarrabeitia, a further 24 seconds back in the overall classification, joined Escartin and Casero on an all-Spanish winners' podium. Escartin, who was the best-classified Spaniard in both the Tour of France and Tour of Spain last year, had taken the lead in Wednesday's tough mountain stage. On Thursday he was again well escorted by his Kelme team mates, who resisted a series of attacks from Casero and the Banesto riders. In the final 10 kilometres Spain's Marino Alonso and Russia's Pavel Tonkov broke away. But they failed to keep up the pressure and were caught by Uchakov and Austria's Henk Vogels, who fought out the race to the line. Spaniard Fernando Escartin, from team Kelme, won today the 77th edition of Vuelta a Catalonia, after disputing the 8th and last stage with start and finish at the capital of Andorra, the stage was won by Serguei Outschakov (Polti). Outschakov came in ahead of Australian Vogels, who marked the time of the group where Escartin was. The overall is headed by Fernando Escartin followed by Angel Luis Casero at 2 sec, Mikel Zarrabeitia at 26, Daniel Clavero at 53 & Russian Pavel Tonkov at 1:04. The Banesto team also climbed the podium when they won the team award. Eleuterio Anguita took the Metas volantes, Arnaud Pretot the special sprints and Hector Ivan Palacio the mountain prize. The last stage turned out to be like a triumph parade for Escartin, because he was attacked by his closest competitors, specially Banesto for Casero, who was a 2 seconds, Escartin and his teammates reacted to everything. Many cyclists abandoned, amongst them Leblanc and there were manny attacks because the terrain was good for that. Due to Kelme's blockage of the race, the peloton reached Andorra together, with different attempts by various riders. One of the few ones to prosper was by Marino Alonso, who was joined by Pavel Tonkov, they opened a big gap, but then very incomprehensibly, they stopped pedaling and were caught. Outschakov took advantage and attacked strongly, taking with him only Vogels who he beat in a tight sprint. |