Vuelta Comes to Turning Point

Zabel was beaten again in the seventh stage on Friday by Alessandro Petacchi, winner of 5 stages in this race last year alone. A five-time Tour de France winner, Miguel Indurain, said that he would sign a contract saying that he would win the Tour de France and spend the rest of the races coming in second. Erik Zabel's a sprinter, so maybe he did that this year, but made the race he won the World Championship. We'll see what happens in October. The overall classification remained the same, with Manual Beltran in the lead.



The next day's race, an individual time trial, was won by the new olympic time trial champion, Tyler Hamilton. He has been wearing a wrist splint from a crash on stage 4. (You would think he would learn from his mistakes, but I guess he will always crash.) This put Floyd Landis in the leader's jersey.



Today's (Sunday's) race was won by Leonardo Piepoli, but the big news was that defending champion, Roberto Heras, was right behind him and gained time on his challengers (see below for times). Floyd Landis is still in the leader's jersey.

(The guy in the yellow won the stage, while Heras took second.)


INDIVIDUAL RESULTS - STAGE 9
1. Leonardo Piepoli (I), Saunier Duval, 4:29:36
2. Roberto Heras (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 0:04
3. Isidro Nozal (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 0:10
4. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 0:15
5. Jorge Ferrio (Sp), Paternina - Costa De Almeria, 0:25
6. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Kelme - Costa Blanca, 0:29
7. Denis Menchov (Rus), Illes Balears-Banesto, 0:41
8. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 0:52
9. Floyd Landis (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 0:55
10. Aitor Gonzalez (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 1:09

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION(AFTER 9 STAGES)
1. Floyd Landis (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 31:46:48
2. Manuel Beltran (Sp), U.S. Postal Service, 0:33
3. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 0:38
4. Isidro Nozal (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 0:51
5. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Kelme - Costa Blanca, 0:57
6. Roberto Heras (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 1:35
7. Denis Menchov (Rus), Illes Balears-Banesto, 1:52
8. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 1:55
9. Aitor Gonzalez (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 2:25
10. David Blanco (Sp), Kelme - Costa Blanca, 3:30