13th Challenge Illes Balears - 1.3 (x 5)

Spain, February 1-5, 2004

2003 results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners

The Stages

Stage 1 - February 1: Palma-Palma, 82.5 km
Stage 2 - February 2: Alcudia-Port d'Alcudia, 159 km
Stage 3 - February 3: Soller-Port de Sóller, 150.6 km
Stage 4 - February 4: Calabona-Manacor, 159.8 km
Stage 5 - February 5: Magaluf-Palmanova, 149.3 km

European calendar opens in Mallorca

The European road season officially opens on Sunday, February 1 with the 13th edition of the Challenge Illes Balears (Vuelta a Mallorca). This five race series is ridden as five separate UCI 1.3 races, with points on offer for each one. There is also a final general classification, but there are no UCI points on offer for this as it is not compulsory to start each stage.

The Challenge will see many of the top Europeans stretch their legs for the first time this season, with the likes of Erik Zabel (T-Mobile), Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Alejandro Valverde (Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme) riders to watch in the bunch sprints. Johan Museeuw (Quick.Step) will start his final season as a pro in Mallorca while the first ever Baleares professional team, Illes Balears-Banesto, including Antonio Colom, José Luis Arrieta and Aitor Osa, will take part in the Challenge.

The racing will commence with a short 82.5 kilometre stage in Palma, held on a flat circuit traditionally suited to the sprinters. Stage 2 from Alcudia to Port d'Alcudia (159 km) includes the first mountain in the race, the Cat. 2 Col d'Honor (558m) which comes after 69 km. The third stage from Soller to Port de Sóller (150 km) is the toughest on paper, and features four Cat. 2 climbs with the Coll de Puig Major (871m) coming with just 6.8 km to go.

Stage 4 is another one for the sprinters, taking them 160 km from Calabona to Manacor. Only the Cat. 4 climb of Son Tovell with 18 km to go will disrupt the rhythm of the peloton. The final stage is from Magaluf to Palmanova over 149.3 km, and is dotted with Cat. 2 and Cat. 3 climbs (five in total).

Start list

Com.Valenciana-Kelme               Bankgiroloterij
4 Jose Cayetano Julia (Spa)        18 Jeroen Blijlevens  (Ned)
5 Antonio Olmo (Spa)               19 Matthé Pronk (Ned)
6 Javier P.Rodriguez (Spa)         20 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned)
8 Adolfo Garcia (Spa)              21 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den)
9 Francisco Cabello (Spa)          22 Rudi Kemna (Ned)
10 Carlos Garcia (Spa)             23 Marco Bos (Ned)
13 Ruben Plaza (Spa)               24 Frank Van Dulmen (Ned)
14 Carlos Zarate (Spa)             27 Lars Bak (Den)
15 Javier Cherro (Spa)             29 Allan Johansen (Den)
16 David Blanco (Spa)              30 Eelke Van Der Wal (Ned)
 
Team CSC                           Euskaltel-Euskadi
34 Bobby Julich (USA)              49 Markel Irizar (Spa)
35 Frank Schleck (Lux)             50 Inigo Landaluze (Spa)
36 Jens Voigt (Ger)                51 Mikel Artetxe (Spa)
38 Nicki Sorensen (Den)            54 Aitor Silloniz (Spa)
39 Max Sciandri (GBr)              55 Unai Etxebarria (Ven)
41 Jakob Piil (Den)                56 Gorka Arrizabalaga (Spa)
42 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor)         58 Koldo Fernandez (Spa)
43 Michael Blaudzun (Den)          59 Alberto Lopez (Spa)
44 Vladimir Goussev (Rus)          60 Aketza Peña (Spa)
45 Peter Luttenberger (Aut)        61 Gorka Verdugo (Spa)
 
Gerolsteiner                       Illes Balears-Banesto
65 Sven Montgomery (Swi)           78 Antonio Colom (Spa)
66 Michael Rich (Ger)              79 José Luis Arrieta (Spa)
68 Fabian Wegmann (Ger)            82 José Antonio Lopez (Spa)
70 Danilo Hondo (Ger)              83 David Navas (Spa)
71 Uwe Peschel (Ger)               84 Steffen Radochla (Ger)
72 Ronny Scholz (Ger)              85 Xabier Zandio (Spa)
73 Arcel Strauss (Swi)             87 Daniel Becke (Ger)
75 Thomas Ziegler (Ger)            90 Denis Menchov (Rus)
                                   91 Aitor Osa (Spa)
                                   92 Vicente Reynes (Spa)
 
Cafes Baque                        Liberty Seguros
99 Efrain Gutierrez (Spa)          114 Roberto Heras (Spa)
102 Ricardo Serrano (Spa)          117 Luis Sanchez (Spa)
103 Julen Urbano (Spa)             120 Koldo Gil (Spa)
104 Haritz Arruti (Spa)            122 Alberto Contador (Spa)
106 Jorge Garcia (Spa)             123 Carlos Barredo (Spa)
107 Francisco Gutierrez (Spa)      125 Angel Vicioso (Spa)
108 Alberto Hierro (Spa)           127 Javier Ramirez (Spa)
109 Francisco Palacio (Spa)        128 Jesus Hernandez (Spa)
110 Sergio Perez (Spa)             130 Allan Davis (Aus)
111 Fernando Torres (Spa)          131 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita)
 
Lokomotiv                          Costa Almeria-Paternina
135 Sergey Kulakov                 150 Carlos Torrent (Spa)
136 Pavel Brutt (Rus)              152 Carlos Golbano (Spa)
137 Nikita Eskov (Rus)             153 Lander Euba (Spa)
138 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus)         155 Mikel Elgezabal (Spa)
139 Anton Mindlin (Rus)            158 Pedro Diaz Lobato (Spa)
141 Serguei Klimov (Rus)           160 David Fernandez (Spa)
142 Alexander Serov (Rus)          161 David Herrero (Spa)
143 Nikolai Troussov (Rus)         162 Dermot Nally (Irl)
146 Maxim Averin (Rus)             163 Ion Del Rio (Spa)
147 Kirill Demura (Rus)            164 José Angel Gomez (Spa)
 
Phonak Hearing Systems             Quick Step-Davitamon
168 Niki Aebersold (Swi)           184 Johan Museeuw (Bel)
169 Daniele Bennati (Ita)          185 Paolo Bettini (Ita)
172 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa)   186 Laurent Dufaux (Swi)
173 Oscar Pereiro (Spa)            187 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa)
175 Alex Zuelle (Swi)              188 Michael Rogers (Aus)
176 Gonzalo Bayarri (Spa)          189 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger)
177 Oscar Camenzind (Swi)          190 Richard Virenque (Fra)
178 Martin Elmiger (Swi)           194 Luca Paolini (Ita)
179 Santos Gonzalez (Spa)
180 Alexandre Moos (Swi)
 
Rabobank                           Relax-Bodysol
196 Erik Dekker (Ned)              212 Gustavo Dominguez (Spa)
197 Oscar Freire (Spa)             214 Bert Roesems (Bel)
198 Robert Bartko (Ger)            215 James Vanlandschoot (Bel)
199 Maarten Den Bakker (Ned)       217 Bart Dockx (Bel)
200 Steven De Jongh (Ned)          218 Preben Van Hecke (Bel)
201 Marc Lotz (Ned)                221 Nico Mattan (Bel)
204 Bram De Groot (Ned)            223 Luis Pasamontes (Spa)
206 Mathew Hayman (Aus)            225 Luis Perez (Spa)
207 Karsten Kroon (Ned)            227 Wim De Vocht (Bel)
208 Thorwald Veneberg (Ned)        228 Julio Lopez (Spa)
 
Saunier Duval-Prodir               Spanish Track Team
230 Miguel A M.Perdiguero (Spa)    246 Juan Llaneras (Spa)
231 Rafael Casero (Spa)            247 Sergi Escobar (Spa)
232 Juan Gomis (Spa)               248 Carlos Castaño (Spa)
233 Tim Johnson (USA)              249 Antonio Miguel (Spa)
234 Massimo Strazzer (Ita)         251 Jesus Buendia (Spa)
237 Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spa)    252 Miguel Alzamora (Spa)
238 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa)        253 Guillermo Ferrer (Spa)
239 David De La Fuente (Spa)       254 Alvaro Noguera (Spa)
241 Ruben Lobato (Spa)             255 Gaizka Lejarreta (Spa)
                                   256 Javier Carrion (Spa)
 
British Track Team                 T-Mobile
259 Christopher Newton (GBr)       270 Erik Zabel (Ger)
260 Antony Gibb (GBr)              271 Rolf Aldag (Ger)
261 Rob Hayles (GBr)               274 Jan Schaffrath (Ger)
262 Russell Downing (GBr)          275 Steffen Wesemann (Ger)
263 Julian Winn (GBr)              276 Andreas Kloden (Ger)
264 Bryan Steel GRB                277 Cadel Evans (Aus)
265 Paul Manning (GBr)             278 Serguei Ivanov (Rus)
266 Kristian House GRB             280 Christian Werner (Ger)
267 Dean Downing (GBr)
 
Team Wiesenhof
286 Roberto Lochowski (Ger)
287 Jens Heppner (Ger)
288 Martin Müller (Ger)
289 Lars Wackernagel (Ger)
290 Christian Knees (Ger)
291 Carsten Podlesch (Ger)
292 Enrico Poitschke (Ger)
293 Ralf Grabsch (Ger)
294 Sebastian Siedler (Ger)
296 Daniel Meinke (Ger)

Past winners

2003 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 
2002 Francisco Cabello (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca
2001 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank
2000 Francisco Cabello (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros
1999 José Luis Rebollo (Spa) ONCE - Deutsche Bank
1998 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Mapei-Bricobi
1997 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE
1996 Francisco Cabello (Spa) ONCE
1995 Alex Zülle (Swi) ONCE
1994 David García (Spa) Banesto
1993 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE
1992 Javier Murguialday (Spa) Lotus

Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com