News for September 2, 2002
Edited by Jeff Jones
The Vuelta approaches
By Jeff Jones
The 57th edition of the Vuelta España starts next Saturday, September
7 with a 30 km team time trial in Valencia, finishing three weeks later
with a 45 km individual time trial in Madrid's famous Stadion Santiago
Bernabeu, which has hosted Spain's most famous soccer team Real Madrid
for the past 100 years. Although organisers Unipublic would have liked
to have included some more soccer-like aspects into the Vuelta, such as
having a qualifying week with two pelotons racing concurrently, that was
knocked on the head by a number of teams when it was announced a few months
ago.
However, the Vuelta remains the most innovative major tour on the calendar,
featuring a shorter overall distance than either the Tour de France and
the Giro d'Italia, and therefore shorter and more intense stages. Given
that most of the riders are getting tired at this end of the season, it's
a ploy that has worked well to keep the interest in the race right up
until the last day.
In fact, the 2001 Vuelta was decided
in favour of Angel Casero on the last day when he finished fourth in the
final time trial, and leapfrogged Oscar Sevilla. Casero, whose season
had been hampered by injury up until that point, did not even win a stage,
but his consistency was good enough to win him the Vuelta.
This year, riding for Team Coast, he will have the role of defending
champion, and again will approach the Vuelta with a minimal amount of
racing in his legs due to a knee injury. Casero says that he is fully
recovered from the injury, and has been training very hard of late. His
ambition is to finish on the podium again, which will be no easy task.
Casero considers his biggest challengers to be Gilberto Simoni, who
was strong in the mountains of the Giro d'Italia and after missing the
Tour de France is itching to test his legs on the big climbs again. Then
there are 2000 winner Roberto Heras, last year's runner up Oscar Sevilla,
and the always dangerous Joseba Beloki.
The race will feature 21 stages, including two individual time trials,
a team time trial, eight flat stages, and ten medium to high mountain
stages. There will be four mountain top finishes this year, including
the dreaded Alto de L'Angliru which was absent from last year's race.
The mountains start as early as the fifth stage which finishes at Sierra
Nevada (2520 m), followed by the sixth stage from Granada to Sierra de
la Pandera (1840m).
2002 Vuelta preview
Provisional start list
Stages & climbs
Cipollini at the helm of Acqua e Sapone
Mario Cipollini will be Acqua e Sapone's top rider in the Vuelta España,
taking a team of specialist lead out men to deliver him to the line in
the flatter stages. With the speed of Giovanni Lombardi and the powerful
Mario Scirea to wind up the speed in the last 2 km, the rest of the squad
also packs a lot of punch. Spanish sprinter Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero,
time trialist Santos Gonzalez, Ruben Lobato, Daniele Bennati, Guido Trenti
and Martin Derganc should be a good combination. The team will be directed
by Antonio Salutini and Enrico Paolini.
Saeco-Longoni Sport with three leaders at the Vuelta
The Saeco-Longoni Sport team has announced the squad for the Vuelta
España, that starts in Valencia next Saturday. Led by Gilberto
Simoni, Danilo Di Luca and Igor Astarloa, the team promises to be very
competitive in the third and final grand tour of the season. The other
riders are Fabio Sacchi, Alessio Galletti, Leonardo Bertagnolli, Gerrit
Glomser, Alessandro Spezialetti, Juan Fuentes, with Claudio Corti as team
manager and Giuseppe Martinelli, Bruno Vicino and Guido Bontempi as directeurs
sportifs.
(All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2002)
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