23rd Vuelta a Murcia - 2.3

Spain, March 5-9, 2003

2002 Results Stage List Preview Start List Past winners

The Stages

Stage 1 - March 5: Murcia - Ceuti, 162.1 km
Stage 2 - March 6: Alguazas - Alto Cresta del Gallo, 153.6 km
Stage 3 - March 7: Caravaca - Caravaca, 160.8 km
Stage 4 - March 8: Cartagena - Alto de La Santa, 167.0 km
Stage 5 - March 9: Murcia - Murcia ITT, 12.9 km

Preview

Lance Armstrong will start in his first race of the season in the 23rd Vuelta a Murcia, which runs from March 5-9. The five stage race contains two mountain top finishes and an individual time trial, and will be the first competition test for Armstrong on the road to his fifth Tour de France. Following Murcia, his program will include Setmana Catalana, Circuit de la Sarthe, Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Vuelta a Asturias (perhaps) and the Dauphiné Liberé.

Last year, the race was won by his teammate Victor Hugo Peña, who will also be part of the US Postal/Berry Floor team taking part this year. Other team members include Roberto Heras and José Luis Rubiera, who will no doubt be part of the Tour team this year.

The Tour of Murcia contains four Category 1 climbs in its five stages, including mountain top finishes in Stage 2 and Stage 4, as well as a final 12.9 km time trial.

Seventeen teams will compete: iBanesto.com, ONCE-Eroski, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Relax-Fuenlabrada, Kelme-Costa Blanca, Paternina-Costa de Almeria, Labarca 2-Café Baqué, Sidermec, US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor, Rabobank, Team Telekom, Lampre, Vlaanderen-T Interim, Alessio, Gerolsteiner, Phonak Hearing Systems and Team Coast.

Start list

US Postal presented by Berry Floor  Kelme-Costa Blanca
 
1 Lance Armstrong (USA)             11 Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Spa)
2 Michael Barry (Can)               12 Alejandro Valverde (Spa)
3 Roberto Heras (Spa)               13 Javier Llorente (Spa)
4 George Hincapie (USA)             14 David Muñoz (Spa)
5 Victor Hugo Peña (Col)            15 Jesus Maria Manzano (Spa)
6 Steffen Kjaergaard (Nor)          16 Jose Cayetano Julia (Spa)
8 David Zabriskie (USA)             17 Juan Miguel Cuenca (Spa)
                                    18 Ignacio Gutierrez (Spa)
 
Rabobank                            iBanesto.com
 
21 Levi Leipheimer (USA)            31 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita)
22 Beat Zberg (Swi)                 32 Vladimir Karpets (Rus)
23 Addy Engels (Ned)                33 Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Spa)
24 Grischa Niermann (Ger)           34 Unai Osa (Spa)
25 Karsten Kroon (Ned)              35 Jose Luis Arrieta (Spa)
26 Kevin De Weert (Bel)             36 Eladio Jimenez (Spa)
27 Michael Rasmussen (Den)          37 Xabier Zandio (Spa)
28 Thorwald Veneberg (Ned)          38 Jon Odriozola (Spa)
 
Gerolsteiner                        ONCE-Eroski
                                   
41 Daniele Contrini (Ita)           51 Isidro Nozal (Spa)
42 Gianni Faresin (Ita)             52 Jan Hruska (Cze)
43 Uwe Hardter (Ger)                54 Alvaro Gonzalez (Spa)
44 Uwe Peschel (Ger)                55 Rafael Diaz (Spa)
45 Michael Rich (Ger)               56 Rene Andrle (Cze)
46 Marcel Strauss (Swi)             57 Gorka Beloki (Spa)
47 Gerhard Trampusch (Aut)          58 Jhonathan Gonzalez (Spa)
48 Fabian Wegmann (Ger)             
 
Telekom                             Euskaltel-Euskadi
 
61 Cadel Evans (Aus)                71 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa)
62 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita)           72 Iban Mayo (Spa)
63 David Kopp (Ger)                 73 David Etxebarria (Spa)
64 Dirk Reichl (Ger)                74 Mikel Artetxe (Spa)
65 Stefan Schumacher (Ger)          75 Inaki Isasi (Spa)
66 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz)           76 Iker Flores (Spa)
67 Erik Zabel (Ger)                 77 David Herrero (Spa)
                                    78 Lander Euba (Spa)
 
Team Coast                          Paternina-Costa Almeria
 
81 Angel Luis Casero (Spa)          91 Juan Carlos Guillamon (Spa)
82 Manuel Beltran (Spa)             92 Carlos Torrent (Spa)
83 Luis Perez (Spa)                 93 Pedro Diaz Lobato (Spa)
84 Steffen Radochla (Ger)           94 Jorge Ferrio (Spa)
85 Aitor Garmendia (Spa)            95 Joaquim Lopez (Spa)
86 Jaime Hernandez (Spa)            96 Carlos Golbano (Spa)
87 Francisco Jose Lara (Spa)        97 Jose Luis Martinez (Spa)
88 Thorsten Rund (Ger)              98 Domingo Segado (Spa)
 
Phonak Hearing Systems              Colchon Relax-Fuenlabrada
 
101 Martin Elmiger (Swi)            111 Benjamin Noval (Spa)
102 Bert Grabsch (Ger)              112 Santiago Blanco (Spa)
103 Iker Camaño (Spa)               113 Antonio Colom (Spa)
104 Cyril Dessel (Fra)              114 David Navas (Spa)
105 Stefan Kupfernagel (Ger)        115 Jose Manuel Maestre (Spa)
106 Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spa)     116 Nacor Burgos (Spa)
107 Daniel Schnider (Swi)           117 Hector Guerra (Spa)
108 Massimo Strazzer (Ita)          118 German Nieto (Spa)
 
Saunier Duval-Sidermec              Labarca 2-Cafe Baque
 
121 Gianluca Bortolami (Ita)        131 Cesar Garcia (Spa)
123 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita)            132 David Lopez (Spa)
124 David De La Fuente (Spa)        133 Francisco Gutierrez (Spa)
125 Patrick Calcagni (Swi)          134 Francisco Palacios (Spa)
126 Steve Zampieri (Swi)            135 Ivan Herrero (Spa)
127 Massimo Apollonio (Ita)         136 Leandro Navarrete (Spa)
128 Dario Andriotto (Ita)           137 Marcelino Garcia (Spa)
                                    138 Ricardo Serrano (Spa)
 
Alessio                             Lampre
 
141 Stefano Casagranda (Ita)        151 Wladimir Belli (Ita)
142 Davide Casarotto (Ita)          152 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi)
143 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita)         153 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu)
144 Laurent Dufaux (Swi)            154 Mariano Piccoli (Ita)
145 Angelo Furlan (Ita)             155 Marco Pinotti (Ita)
146 Ruslan Ivanov (Mda)             156 Milan Kadlec (Cze)
147 Denis Lunghi (Ita)              157 Alberto Loddo (Ita)
                                    158 Jan Svorada (Cze)
 
Vlaanderen-T Interim
 
161 Steven Kleynen (Bel)
162 Nico Sijmens (Bel)
163 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel)
164 Rudolf Wentzel (RSA)
165 Matthew Gilmore (Bel)
166 Jef Peeters (Bel)
167 Frederik Willems (Bel)
168 Win Van Huffel (Bel)

Past winners

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