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42nd Vuelta al País Vasco - 2.HC
Spain, April 8-12, 2002
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Stage 4 - April 11: Alasua - Villabona, 154 km
Osa strengthens his lead and Pellizotti takes the stage
By Martin Hardie, cyclingnews.com correspondent
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No place like home - Guipuzcoa greeted it's native son, Aitor Osa and Osa greeted Guipuzcoa by extending his lead over Bingen Fernandez by thirty seconds in the Itzulia (Vuelta) today. The shortened stage gave the Italian Franco Pellizotti (Alessio) his second victory of the season when he out sprinted the Dane, Nicki Sorensen (CSC) in the last steep five hundred metres into Billabona. The ramp was such that in the peloton behind Aitor Osa was able to put another thirty seconds between him and his closest rival Bingen Fernandez over the final five hundred metres.
Yesterday's weather was bad and along with local knowledge, especially on the descent of the Urbasa, had a great effect on the race with a much smaller peloton making it to the finish. Today the Basque spring continued on its merry way with the conditions continuing to worsen.
Stage 3 saw the Wild Boar and winner of Stage 2, Garcia Calvo (Relax) hospitalised with hypothermia. In all 28 riders failed to make it to Altsasu yesterday, the weather and the race taking its toll with Beloki, Klöden, Di Luca and Julich amongst them. Take a look at the team numbers, four Telekoms out, four Saecos out and four from Relax.
Beloki stated after the stage "when its not one thing it's the other...I had stopped since Mallorca because of trouble with my Achilles tendon, ... here...my intention was to help my other companions and to find better form. I wanted to continue, but in the end the cold sent me home. Now I hope to recuperate and race next week in the Vuelta a Aragon".
The first part of today's stage was intended to continue to travel though the uplands of Navarra before descending into the green valleys and hill country of Guipuzcoa. However the cold and rain was last night joined by snow to such an extent that the race organisation was greeted this morning with the Navarran part of the course covered. As a result of the heavy snowfalls and rain the stage was shortened by 65 kilometres and the start was moved from the Navarran town of Altsasu to the village of Lizartza in Guipuzcoa.
Nevertheless all was not grey in the Basque Country. The great orange hope, Alberto Martinez may have missed his shot at the G.C. missing the break in stage one. But his countrymen have reasserted domination of their Vuelta in a big way. Seven of the twelve riders who arrived before the peloton yesterday were Basque riders. Six of the top ten on GC are Basque riders and the overall surely (if anything can be sure in this exciting tour) will be fought out between Osa and Fernandez, both Basque.
Fernandez has a better reputation against the clock and he may well take the race in the final uphill time trial. Furthermore it was the first stage victory for a Guipuzcoan rider, for 23 years, Aitor Osa joining his compatriots Ricardo Montero (stage victories in 1928 and 1930), Txomin Perurena (1969, 1970, 1972 (2 stages), 1973 (2 stages), 1974 (4 stages) and 1976), Jesús Aranzabal (1970) and Miguel Mari Lasa (1971 (3 stages), 1974, 1977, and 1979).
Euskadi's number one cycling fan, the Lehendakari or Basque President, Juan José Ibarretxe, currently on an official visit to Cuba, must be a happy man, if only a little disappointed to miss the action. Still, the green, red and white of the Ikurrina, the Basque flag must have brightened up the skyline as it flew proudly in celebration after yesterday's cold and wet conditions.
Finally the depleted bunch of 109 rolled out of Lizartza at 3.30 p.m. accompanied by the cold and the rain again. Thirty minutes into the race and with only 64 kilometres to the finish, Eusebio Unzue's iBanesto.com were not wanting any surprises. They had the race under control maintaining a strong rhythm at the front on the first ramps of the Cat.3 climb of the alto de Larraitz in order to protect their leader Aitor Osa.
However an attack came and Rafa Casero (Jazztel), Santiago Pérez (Kelme), Franco Pellizotti (Alessio) and Nicki Sorensen (CSC) opened a 1.25 gap on the peloton within 10 kilometres. The course here turns back towards the north and follows the valley of the Oria river, at the sprint in the village of Itsasondo (51 kms to go) the break had a gap of 1.25 with Pellizotti taking the honours from Casero and Sorensen.
As the break continued, the weather and difficulty of the course continued to take its toll, with news of more riders opting to put their feet on terra firma instead of on their pedals, including Barbero, Piccoli, Cortinovis (Lampre), Dufaux (Alessio), and Igor González de Galdeano (Once - Eroski).
At the foot of the climb of Alto de Akiza Cat.2 the escapees had managed to stretch the gap to 2.05. The highest place rider of the four is Pellizotti 27th overall at 3.45 with Sorensen 34th, Casero 36th, and Perez 38th all at 5.30. As the climb progressed iBanesto.com pulled the peloton with a hard rhythm and with 31 kms to go the gap had come down to 1.40. The summit came with 28 kms to go, Pérez took the points from Casero and Sorensen.
With 13 kms to go Banesto continued too work at the front of the bunch with Rabobank and Euskaltel also prominent. Clearly those two teams did not want Zberg, David Etxebarria and Samuel Sanchez to forego their positions on G.C. to Pellizotti, hence they threw their hand in with Banesto in an attempt to pull back the four before the finish who now had a gap of 1.15 and falling.
At the 12 km mark Sorensen launched an attack from the front which was not initially contested by the other three. Pellizotti reacted and caught Sorensen and they made a window of 20 metres to the other two, but the orange and blue headed bunch behind had now closed them down to 45 seconds.
As they headed back around the loop to climb the Alkiza again, Pellizotti tried to leave Sorensen behind without luck, but their aggression had made the gap climb again to 1.15, meanwhile behind David Etxebarria (Euskaltel) tried to escape the vigilant peloton. With 10 kms to go the two leaders crossed the Alkiza for the second time, there was thirteen seconds to Perez and Casero with Samuel Sanchez a few metres ahead of the rest of the peloton at 58 seconds.
With 5 kms to go Sorensen and Pellizotti continued with a gap of 50 seconds on Mario Aerts (Lotto), David Etxebarria and Sánchez of Euskaltel whoa re trying to regain some of the time between them and Osa and Fernandez. The three had got away on the crossing and descent of the Alkiza. They quickly caught Perez and Casero and chased the two leaders into Billabona with 2kms to go.
As they hit the last kilometre the two leaders only had 30 seconds between them and their five pursuers. The last five hundred metres consisted of a steep uphill ramp to the finish, Pellizotti attacked Sorensen who could not follow.
Results
1 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 2.11.00 2 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team CSC Tiscali 0.05 3 David Etxebarria (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0.18 4 Mario Aerts (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 0.21 5 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 6 Rafael Casero Moreno (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeri 0.30 7 Aitor Osa (Spa) iBanesto.com 0.32 8 Beat Zberg (Swi) Rabobank 9 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 10 Gonzalo Bayarri (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 11 Fernando Escartin (Spa) Team Coast 12 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 13 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 14 Udo Bolts (Ger) Team Telekom 15 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 16 Juan Jose De Los Angeles (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 17 Santiago Perez Fdez. (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 0.40 18 Andrea Noe (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 0.42 19 Cadel Evans (Aus) Mapei-Quick Step 20 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 21 Alexander Shefer (Kaz) Alessio 22 Marco Serrano Rodriguez (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 23 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Lampre-Daikin 24 Manuel Beltran (Spa) Team Coast 25 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 26 Jose Azevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski 27 Massimo Codol (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 28 Unai Osa (Spa) iBanesto.com 29 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Team CSC Tiscali 0.56 30 Antonio Colom (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 31 Bingen Fernandez (Spa) Cofidis 1.01 32 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 33 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 1.03 34 Andrei Kivilev (Kaz) Cofidis 1.07 35 Daniele De Paoli (Ita) Alessio 1.48 36 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 37 Francis Vila Errandonea (Spa) iBanesto.com 1.56 38 Ricardo Valdez (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 2.29 39 Abraham Olano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 40 Cedric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis 41 Ellis Rastelli (Ita) Gerolsteiner 42 Daniel Atienza (Spa) Cofidis 43 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Lampre-Daikin 2.40 44 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 2.45 45 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Rabobank 46 David Plaza (Spa) Team Coast 47 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Alessio 48 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 49 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Team Telekom 50 Alberto Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2.52 51 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 52 Igor Astarloa (Spa) Saeco-Longoni Sport 53 Jose Garrido (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 54 Gorazd Stangelj (Slo) Fassa Bortolo 55 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 3.00 56 Gustavo Mario Toledo (Arg) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 57 Peter Farazijn (Bel) Cofidis 4.45 58 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol) iBanesto.com 4.48 59 Francisco Lara (Spa) Team Coast 60 Inigo Chaurreau (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 5.14 61 Cesar Solaun (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 5.28 62 Marcelino Garcia Alonso (Spa) Team CSC Tiscali 63 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC Tiscali 64 Inaki Isasi Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 65 Inigo Cuesta (Spa) Cofidis 8.13 66 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank 67 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank 68 Levy Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank 69 Marc Lotz (Ned) Rabobank 70 Marcel Strauss (Swi) Gerolsteiner 71 Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Coast 72 Thomas Brozyna (Pol) iBanesto.com 73 David Latasa (Spa) iBanesto.com 74 Elio Aggiano (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 75 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre-Daikin 8.33 76 Danny Jonasson (Den) Team CSC Tiscali 77 Thorwald Veneberg (Ned) Rabobank 78 Dario Cioni (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 79 Oscar Laguna (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 80 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco-Longoni Sport 81 Alberto Lopez De Munain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 82 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 83 Igor Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 84 Jose M. Maestre (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 85 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Ag2R Prevoyance 86 Angelo Lopeboselli (Ita) Cofidis 8.44 87 Luca Paolini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 88 Simone Bertoletti (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 89 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 90 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 91 Juan Fuentes (Spa) Saeco-Longoni Sport 92 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saeco-Longoni Sport 93 Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 8.58 94 Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 9.42 95 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance 10.38 96 Gustavo Otero Gomez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 13.26 97 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 98 Juan Carlos Guillamom (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria17.56 99 Jose Vazquez (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada DNF Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Fassa Bortolo DNF Kim Kirchen (Lux) Fassa Bortolo DNF Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) Team Telekom DNF Luca Scinto (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step DNF Christophe Detilloux (Bel) Lotto-Adecco DNF Ief Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Adecco DNF Ruslan Ivanov (Mda) Alessio DNF J.Maria Manzano (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca DNF Niki Aebersold (Swi) Team Coast DNF Gianni Faresin (Ita) Gerolsteiner DNF Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Gerolsteiner General classification after stage 4 1 Aitor Osa (Spa) iBanesto.com 14.58.15 2 Bingen Fernandez (Spa) Cofidis 0.29 3 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Alessio 3.13 4 David Etxebarria (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 3.31 5 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 3.34 6 Mario Aerts (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 7 Beat Zberg (Swi) Rabobank 3.45 8 Gonzalo Bayarri (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 9 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 10 Fernando Escartin (Spa) Team Coast 11 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom 12 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 13 Juan Jose De Los Angeles (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 14 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 15 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 3.55 16 Manuel Beltran (Spa) Team Coast 17 Marco Serrano Rodriguez (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 18 Cadel Evans (Aus) Mapei-Quick Step 19 Alexander Shefer (Kaz) Alessio 20 Andrea Noe (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 21 Jose Azevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski 22 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski 23 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Lampre-Daikin 24 Andrei Kivilev (Kaz) Cofidis 4.20 25 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio 4.31 26 Francis Vila Errandonea (Spa) iBanesto.com 4.39 27 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team CSC Tiscali 5.03 28 Abraham Olano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 5.12 29 Rafael Casero Moreno (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almer 5.28 30 Udo Bolts (Ger) Team Telekom 5.30 31 Santiago Perez Fdez. (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 5.38 32 Unai Osa (Spa) iBanesto.com 5.40 33 Igor Astarloa (Spa) Saeco-Longoni Sport 6.05 34 Antonio Colom (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 6.11 35 Juan Miguel Mercado (Spa) iBanesto.com 6.51 36 Ricardo Valdez (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 7.27 37 Daniel Atienza (Spa) Cofidis 38 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Alessio 7.43 39 Christophe Brandt (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 40 Alberto Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 8.04 41 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Rabobank 8.35 42 Ellis Rastelli (Ita) Gerolsteiner 8.36 43 Massimo Codol (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 9.39 44 Dariusz Baranowski (Pol) iBanesto.com 10.38 45 Cesar Solaun (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 11.18 46 Inigo Cuesta (Spa) Cofidis 11.26 47 Aitor Garmendia (Spa) Team Coast 12.45 48 Thomas Brozyna (Pol) iBanesto.com 13.11 49 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Ag2R Prevoyance 13.31 50 David Plaza (Spa) Team Coast 13.40 51 Ivan Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 13.56 52 Jose M. Maestre (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 14.13 53 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 14.22 54 Daniele De Paoli (Ita) Alessio 15.07 55 Levy Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank 15.33 56 Cedric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis 15.48 57 Gustavo Mario Toledo (Arg) Jazztel-Costa De Almer 16.12 58 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Team CSC Tiscali 16.15 59 Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 18.04 60 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 19.16 61 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre-Daikin 19.28 62 Inigo Chaurreau (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 20.08 63 Oscar Laguna (Spa) Relax-Fuenlabrada 20.33 64 Mikel Zarrabeitia (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 20.37 65 Marc Lotz (Ned) Rabobank 21.32 66 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank 21.32 67 Marco Velo (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 22.03 68 Gorazd Stangelj (Slo) Fassa Bortolo 24.32 69 Peter Farazijn (Bel) Cofidis 26.25 70 Simone Bertoletti (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 28.00 71 Dario Cioni (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 28.46 72 Inaki Isasi Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 30.15 73 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Lampre-Daikin 30.17 74 Rolf Aldag (Ger) Team Telekom 31.54 75 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) ONCE-Eroski 32.02 76 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2R Prevoyance 32.46 77 Jose Garrido (Spa) Jazztel-Costa De Almeria 34.01 78 Gustavo Otero Gomez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 34.42 79 Danny Jonasson (Den) Team CSC Tiscali 35.35 80 Igor Flores (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 36.24 81 Kurt Van De Wouwer (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 37.42 82 Luca Paolini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 40.19 83 David Latasa (Spa) iBanesto.com 41.55 84 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC Tiscali 42.34 85 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank 42.52 86 Thorwald Veneberg (Ned) Rabobank 45.28 87 Alberto Lopez De Munain (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 45.39 88 Oscar Pozzi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 46.04 89 Francisco Lara (Spa) Team Coast 46.27 90 Marcelino Garcia Alonso (Spa) Team CSC Tiscali 46.48 91 Elio Aggiano (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 56.54 92 Marcel Strauss (Swi) Gerolsteiner 1.01.26 93 Juan Fuentes (Spa) Saeco-Longoni Sport 1.01.57 94 Angelo Lopeboselli (Ita) Cofidis 1.03.57 95 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saeco-Longoni Sport 1.03.57 96 Gerrit Glomser (Aut) Saeco-Longoni Sport 1.09.32 Notes: stage 4 was shortened to 80 km due to snow on the mountain passes. Full results and report to come
