Vuelta a Espana : Stages 1 - 3
The 2007 Vuelta a Espana is 3 stages old and the sprinters have had their fun sharing wins between Daniele Bennati (Lampre - Fondital) in stage 1, Oscar Freire (Rabobank) taking stage 2 and World Champion Paolo Bettini (Quickstep - Innergetic) too strong in stage 3.
As seems to be the norm in the early stages of Grand Tours, we’ve also seen our share of crashes with a couple of the more fancied riders having their chances, as well as their bodies dented. The most notable is Oscar Pereiro (Caisse D’Epargne) in the second stage who was heavily involved in a massive pile-up at the end of the stage. He came down heavily and had to be assisted across the line by his team-mates. In that crash it was Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) who came out of it the worst with a broken shoulder blade removing him from the race.
The third stage crash victim was Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel - Euskadi) who came down with 20km to go when a road cone was flicked into his wheels. He ended up losing 11′ 00″ for the day.
The leaders jersey has been on the back of two riders so far. Daniele Bennati took hold of it with his first satge victory but then, when he was caught up in the crash of stage 2, it was passed across to Oscar Freire. Freire then held onto it in the 3rd stage with a fighting 2nd placing also ensuring that he has taken a 20 point lead in the Points Classification.
So now we come to the 4th stage and the sprinters can go into survival mode. All of the pre-race favourites are present and accounted for with Cadel Evans (Predictor Lotto) sitting in 6th place, Jose Angel Gomez Marchante (Saunier Duval) in 10th, Denis Menchov (Rabobank) in 15th, Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) in 16th, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) 48th and Oscar Pereiro (Caisse D’Epargne) 50th. But all of them have the same time as the leader.
It’s all about to get ugly in the heat of battle.
stumble
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