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25th Vuelta a Murcia - 2.1
Spain, March 2-6, 2005
2004 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners
The Stages
- Stage 1 - March 2: Murcia - Molina de Segura, 162 km
- Stage 2 - March 3: Alhama de Murcia - Alhama de Murcia ITT, 22 km
- Stage 3 - March 4: Mula - Fortuna, 155.8 km
- Stage 4 - March 5: Águilas - Collado Bermejo, 152.3 km
- Stage 5 - March 6: Murcia - Murcia, 150.6 km
Alternative big guns for Murcia
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Spain's Vuelta a Murcia (Tour of Murcia), which starts today, has traditionally been the first stage race of the season for many top riders, with Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich both starting their preparation for the Tour de France last year in a race that was won by local hero Alejandro Valverde.
The 2005 edition, however, will lack all three of those riders. Ullrich is out of action with flu, while Valverde and Armstrong have both chosen to start Paris-Nice, a ProTour event.
Nevertheless, 16 teams will start in Murcia today, and the field is not bare of top riders, with Lampre-Caffita fielding young gun Damiano Cunego, Joseba Beloki lining up for Liberty Seguros, climber Michael Rasmussen leading the charge for Rabobank and Gerolsteiner tipping sprinter Danilo Hondo for stage wins and a tilt at the general classification. Gerolsteiner will also field American Levi Leipheimer, but team spokesman Udo Bölts says Leipheimer has bigger fish to fry this season.
"For Levi it is the first race of the season," said Bolts. "He is still building his form and certainly has other goals. He is preparing for his season high point to be the Tour de France. Therefore we are not going to raise our expectations of him too high right now."
Murcia's first three days present no major difficulties, with third category climbs in stages one and three and a 22km time trial making up stage two. Stage four's 152km trip from Águilas to Collado Bermejo should shake things up, though, with a third category climb at the halfway point to warm the climbers' legs, and a finale atop the 1150m, category one Alto de Collado Bermejo.
The race finishes with a 150km final stage that begins and ends in Murcia.
Start list
Comunidad Valenciana T-Mobile Team
1 José L. Martinez (Spa) 11 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita)
2 Francisco Cabello (Spa) 12 Eric Baumann (Ger)
3 Javie Pascual Llorente (Spa) 13 Marcus Burghardt (Ger)
4 Ruben Plaza (Spa) 14 Bastiaan Giling (Ned)
5 Carlos Garcia (Spa) 15 Bernhard Kohl (Aut)
6 Adolfo Garcia (Spa) 17 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz)
7 Javier Pascual Rodriguez (Spa)
8 Eladio Jimenez (Spa)
Lampre-Caffita Illes Balears
21 Damiano Cunego (Ita) 31 José Ivan Gutierrez (Spa)
22 Juan Fuentes (Spa) 32 David Arroyo (Spa)
23 Marco Marzano (Ita) 33 Antonio Colom (Spa)
24 Marius Sabaliauskas (Ltu) 34 Jose L. Carrasco (Spa)
25 Alessandr Spezialetti (Ita) 35 Sergio Escobar (Spa)
26 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) 36 José Vicente Garcia (Spa)
27 Gorazd Stangelj (Slo) 37 Jose Cayetano Julia (Spa)
28 Andrea Tonti (Ita) 38 Vladimir Karpets (Rus)
Liberty Seguros-Wurth Gerolsteiner
41 Joseba Beloki (Spa) 51 Levi Leipheimer (USA)
42 Allan Davis (Aus) 52 René Haselbacher (Aut)
43 David Etxebarria (Spa) 53 Danilo Hondo (Ger)
44 Koldo Gil (Spa) 54 Sven Montgomery (Swi)
45 Jesus Hernandez (Spa) 55 Uwe Peschel (Ger)
46 Isidro Nozal (Spa) 56 Michael Rich (Ger)
47 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) 57 Sven Krauss (Ger)
48 Ivan Santos (Spa) 58 Peter Wrolich (Aut)
Saunier Duval-Prodir Rabobank
61 Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spa) 71 Michael Rasmussen (Den)
62 Rafael Casero (Spa) 72 Theo Eltink (Ned)
63 David De La Fuente (Spa) 73 Ronald Mutsaars (Ned)
64 Angel Edo (Spa) 74 Niels Scheuneman (Ned)
65 Andrea Tafi (Ita) 75 Rory Sutherland (Aus)
66 David Cañada (Spa) 76 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin)
67 Juan Jose Cobo (Spa) 77 Remmert Wielinga (Ned)
68 Ruben Lobato (Spa) 78 Pieter Weening (Ned)
Bouygues Telecom Team-Barloworld
81 Laurent Brochard (Fra) 91 Pedro Arreitunandia (Spa)
82 Walter Beneteau (Fra) 92 Roger Beuchat (Swi)
83 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) 93 Matteo Carrara (Ita)
84 Mathieu Claude (Fra) 94 Giampaolo Cheula (Ita)
85 Yohann Gene (Fra) 95 Rene Jorgensen (Den)
86 Alexandre Naulleau (Fra) 96 David Plaza (Spa)
87 Anthony Ravard (Fra) 97 Antonio Salomone (Ita)
98 Giulio Tomi (Ita)
Relax-Fuenlabrada Chocolade Jacques-T Interim
101 José Almagro (Spa) 111 Kurt Hovelynck (Bel)
102 Javier Benitez (Spa) 112 Steven Kleynen (Bel)
103 Xavier Florencio (Spa) 113 Pieter Mertens (Bel)
104 Nacor Burgos (Spa) 114 Jef Peeters (Bel)
105 Ivan Mayoz (Spa) 115 Tom Stubbe (Bel)
106 Daniel Moreno (Spa) 116 Wesley Van Der Linden (Bel)
107 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) 117 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel)
108 Angel Vallejo (Spa) 118 Maarten Wynants (Bel)
Acqua & Sapone-Adria Mobil Landbouwkrediet-Colnago
121 Bo Hamburger (Den) 131 Steven Cummings (GBr)
122 Alexandr Arekeev (Rus) 132 Ludo Dierckxsens (Bel)
123 Alessandro D'Andrea (Ita) 133 Thierry De Groote (Bel)
124 Crescenzo D'Amore (Ita) 134 Gregory Habeaux (Bel)
125 Ondrej Sosenka (Cze) 135 Maxime Monfort (Bel)
126 Jure Golcer (Slo) 136 Geert Verheyen (Bel)
127 Ruggero Marzoli (Ita) 137 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel)
128 Kyrylo Pospyeyev (Ukr) 138 Johan Verstrepen (Bel)
Kaiku Mrbookmaker-SportsTech
141 Dionisio Galparsoro (Spa) 151 Angel Castresana (Spa)
142 Antonio Berasategui (Spa) 152 Geert Omloop (Bel)
143 Yon Bru (Spa) 153 Ben Day (Aus)
144 José A. Lopez (Spa) 154 Jens Renders (Bel)
145 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) 155 Stefan Van Dijck (Ned)
146 Ruben Oarbeascoa (Spa) 157 Peter Wuyts (Bel)
147 Javier Ruiz (Spa)
148 Ricardo Serrano (Spa)
Past winners
2004 1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Com.Valenciana-Kelme 15.49.31 2 José Ivan Gutierrez (Spa) Illes Balears-Banesto 0.05 3 Cadel Evans (Aus) T-Mobile 0.09 2003 1 Javier Pascual Llorente (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 15.58.18 2 Jan Hruska (Cze) ONCE-Eroski 0.17 3 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0.23 2002 1 Victor Hugo Peña (Col) U.S. Postal 16.49.36 2 Jan Hruska (Cze) ONCE-Eroski 0.05 3 Oscar Camenzind (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.10 2001 1 Aitor Gonzalez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 15.52.40 2 Javier Pascual Llorente (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 0.25 3 Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spa) ONCE 0.36 2000 1 David Canada (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 18.09.31 2 Javier Pascual Llorente (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 0.51 3 Jose Alberto Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.10 1999 1 Marco Pantani (Ita) Mercatone Uno-Bianchi 17.54.32 2 Javier Pascual Rodriguez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 0.24 3 Beat Zberg (Swi) Rabobank 0.42 1998 1 Alberto Elli (Ita) Casino 16.35.03 2 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Casino 0.41 3 Marco Pantani (Ita) Mercatone Uno 0.41 1997 1 Juan Carlos Domínguez (Spa) 2 Ignacio García Camacho (Spa) 3 Santos González (Spa) 1996 1 Melchor Mauri (Spa) 2 Wladimir Belli (Ita) 3 Rodolfo Massi (Ita) 1995 1 Adriano Baffi (Ita) 2 Erik Breukink (Ned) 3 Maurizio Fondriest (Ita) 1994 1 Melchor Mauri (Spa) 2 Aitor Garmendia (Spa) 3 H. Díaz Zabala (Spa) 1993 1 Carlos Galarreta (Spa) 2 Laudelino Cubino (Spa) 3 Eddy Bouwmans (Bel) 1992 Alvaro Meija (Col) 1991 José-Luis Villanueva (Spa) 1990 Tom Cordes (Ned) 1989 Marino Alonso (Spa) 1988 Carlos Hernandez-Bailo (Spa) 1987 Pello Ruiz-Cabestany (Spa) 1986 Miguel Indurain (Spa) 1985 José Recio (Spa) Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
