Oscar Freire (Rabobank) won the fifth stage of the Vuelta in a sprint, his second win in the race, ahead of Bennati and Bettini. Previous stage winner Efimkin keeps the lead in the general classement, with Denis Menchov in second place and Carlos Sastre in third. Stijn Devolder, Belgium’s biggest hope in this Tour, is fifth overall. Cadel Evans is seventh.
This is the first difficult mountain stage that included a climb up to the Lagos de Covadonga, featuring inclines as steep as 20%. Jefimkin (Caisse d’Epargne) won this stage, followed by Leonardo Piepoli and Stijn Devolder. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) finished a respectable fourth which is great for him and his team after he lost heart in the Tour de France last July and failed to finish. Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans came in sixth and seventh, respectively. Jefimkin is now the new leader of the classement (as of yesterday, Freire was the leader).
Other cycling news: Gerolsteiner will stop sponsoring cycling after 2008, but says doping is not the sole reason they’re quitting. Meanwhile, Yaroslav Popovych is going to Predictor-Lotto from Discovery Channel (which has also decided to stop its sponsorship of cycling teams).
Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step) won the third stage of the Vuelta today, a course that was somewhat hilly and followed the coastline of Asturias from Viveiro to Luarca, a picturesque village on the water. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Allen Davis (Discovery) came in second and third, respectively. Oscar Freire remains the leader of the classement.
Tomorrow’s stage is extremely steep and difficult, exciting!
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) won the second stage of the Vuelta today in Santiago de Compostela, whose cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages. The leader, Daniele Bennati, was caught in a crash with several other riders, close to the finish. Bennati got into a screaming match with a Euskatel rider as he was getting up on his bike. We’ll find out what actually happened shortly.
Daniele Bennati (Lampre) won the prologue in Vigo, a time trial, that marks the beginning of the Vuelta a España. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) came second and Alessandro Petacchi, third. Belgian favorite, Tom Boonen came in fifth.
The city of Vigo looks like a great place to go for a beach holiday. The beaches are wide and free of ugly highrise buildings, the ocean is Mediterranean blue (although the city is on the Atlantic coast), and the countryside is hilly and very green.
