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Saturday
6th September:
stage
1:
Gijón - Gijón (team
time trial) 30 kms.
The organizers of this year's Tour of Spain (The Vuelta) have mapped
out an imposing and unusual tour this year. With 21 stages covering
2,925 kilometers (compared to the Tour De France's 3,427 km) there
are no fewer than 9 mountainous stages, 3 individual time trials,
and most novel of all, an opening Team Time Trial event.
The Team Time Trial proved most decisive in this year's Tour De
France, which took place in the 4th stage between Joinville and
St. Dizier That event was dominated by the U.S. Postal team, putting
Lance Armstrong in the perfect position to take the yellow jersey
in the Alps.
The final margin of victory for Armstrong was so slim that one could
safely say that without that team victory his final triumph in Paris
would have been in doubt.
The Team Time Trial is above all a technical event that requires
great team cohesiveness.
The times of the first 5 racers to cross the line constitute the
team time.
The strongest teams of the day were those that worked as a fluid
unit, constantly relaying the lead between team members. The event
was a virtual team sprint of around 30 km (compared to 69 km in
this year's Tour De France), winding its way through the mostly
flat terrain of the northern coastal city of Gijon.
FILM
of the STAGE
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la domina vacanze
départ de la bianchi
la Bianchi
aitor Gonzalez très déçu
Aitor Gonzalez
US POSTALE en action
Match Us postale ONCE
ONCE sort vainqueur
perte de 2 coureurs ONCE
Arrivée des cinq de la ONCE, Gonzalez de Galdeano en
tête. |
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Early in the race
Spain's Ibanesto team set the pace to beat at 32 minutes and
25 seconds and remained impregnable throughout most of the race.
Several of the top teams fell just short .
Bianchi (without a much hoped for Ullrich) fell short by 37
seconds, a slightly disappointing finish.
Cofidis, with time trialist David Millar aboard, finished 5
seconds up on Team Bianchi.
The strongest finish in the early part of the afternoon was
from Spain's Kelme team, just 21 seconds off the Ibanesto pace.
One of the great surprises of the day was the strong showing
of the Quickstep team, putting Richard Virenque in good position
(3 seconds down from Kelme).
A couple of major disappointments along the way came from Cipollini's
new team Domina Vacanze-Elitron-RDZ, which finished 4th to last
over 2 minutes off the winning time.
The team Fassa Bortolo suffered a disaster when Aitor Gonzalez
cracked and lost touch with his teamates, who became hopelessly
spread out, finishing at 1:25 down, just ahead of Team Telecom
(including Erik Zabel).
The two favorites, Once-Eroski and U.S. Postal, started next
to the last and last respectively.
From the beginning the Once team set a blistering pace, rolling
like a well oiled machine.
Even U.S. Postal, with most of the Tour De France team intact
(with the exception, of course, of Armstrong), never kept pace,
falling just short at the quarter, halfway and three quarter
points of the times marked by the Once velo machine.
Perhaps in an effort to compensate for their nightmarish Tour
De France, in which their leader Joseba Beloki took a terrible
and bloody fall just 8 km from the Alpine finish in Gap and
thus crushed their high hopes for a tour victory, or perhaps
just because they're truly superior time trial specialists,
the Once team eclipsed Ibanesto and held off a strong U.S. Postal
effort to finish 24 seconds up on their nearest Spanish rivals
and 10 seconds ahead of Heras, Hincapie & Co.
Other strong finishers were the Basque Euskaltel team (6th at
50'), the Spanish team Lampre (9th place just 2 seconds down
from Bianchi) and the Swiss team Phonak just one second behind
that.
The overall leader is Igor Gonzalez, who finished at the head
of the Once team, thus capturing the leader's gold jersey.
Classement
final:
1÷ Once - Eroski ONE 1:
36: 03
2÷ US Postal Service Berry Floor USP a 30
3÷ IBanesto.com BAN a 1:12
4÷ Kelme - Costa Blanca KEL a 2:15
5÷ Quick Step - Davitamon QSD a 2:24
6÷ Euskaltel - Euskadi EUS a 2:30
7÷ Cofidis, le credit par telephone COF a 2:48
8÷ Team Bianchi TBI a 3:03
9÷ Lampre LAM a 3:09
10÷ Phonak Hearing Systems PHO a 3:12
11÷ Rabobank RAB a 3:54
12÷ Paternina - Costa de Almeria ALM a 4:00
13÷ Fassa Bortolo FAS a 4:15
14÷ Team Telekom TEL a 4:18
15÷ Alessio ALS a 4:18
16÷ Team CSC CSC a 4:21
17÷ Milaneza - MSS MIL a 4:30
18÷ Saeco - Longoni Sport SAE a 4:57
19÷ Domina Vacanze-Elitron-RDZ DVE a 6:03
20÷ Saunier Duval - Vini Caldirola VIN a 6:12
21÷ Colchon Relax - Fuenlabrada CRF a 7:30
22÷ Labarca-2 Cafe Baque
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