Gonzalez in frame for Tour of Spain lead
Reuters, Ubrique, Spain
Spaniard Aitor Gonzalez won the eighth stage of the Tour of Spain from Malaga to Ubrique on Saturday to reinforce his emergence as a contender for overall victory.
The Kelme-Costa Blanca rider, a double stage winner in this year's Giro d'Italia where he finished sixth, caught late breakaway Luis Perez of the Coast team within sight of the finish to win the 173.6-kilometer stage from Malaga in four hours 18 minutes and 36 seconds.
The flagging Perez, looking for his first victory in an eight- year career, finished third after also being caught on the line by fellow Spaniard David Etxebarria. Italian Danilo Di Luca was fourth.
Extebarria was the first of the 25-strong group containing overall leader Oscar Sevilla of Spain.
"I hadn't planned to attack, and to tell the truth I wasn't even sure I had won until I crossed the line," Gonzalez, who has moved up to third overall, said afterwards.
"Winning the Vuelta is a possibility. There is no problem between me and my team mate Oscar Sevilla. For the moment I am up there on the gc (general classification) and we'll see what happens in the time trial at Cordoba.
"When I caught Perez I never thought of giving up the stage victory, it's too important, besides the same thing happened to me in the Criterium International stage race this spring when I was caught and beaten by David Moncoutie on a mountainous stage in the final metres."
The challenging stage through the rolling sierras of south- west Spain saw a four-man, day-long break, consisting of the Spaniards Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano and Aitor Osa together with Italian Massimiliano Lelli and Croatian Vladimir Miholjevic go clear after 30 kilometers and build up a lead of four minutes.
The following group split and regrouped several times on the undulating terrain and twisting roads and after Miholjevic was dropped, the remaining three leaders were caught on the category one climb of Las Palomas with 40 kilometers remaining.
A long lunge by 2001 Giro winner Gilberto Simoni gained the Italian both first place at the summit and the lead in the King of the Mountains competition, and then the battle for the stage win began when Madrid-born Perez took off 24 kilometers from the finish.
While the leading peloton hesitated, the Team Coast rider opened up a gap of nearly one minute, but his advantage was shrunk by the hard chasing Gonzalez.
Following a dangerous descent to Ubrique, as the group closed the gap behind, Gonzalez caught and passed the shattered Perez to clinch the stage.
Race leader Sevilla finished 11th to stay in first place overall, although major favorite Roberto Heras lost nine seconds after struggling to maintain contact in the technically complex final kilometers.
The 2000 Vuelta winner, victorious two days previously on the Alto de La Pandera, finished with three other riders.
Sevilla, who holds a 14-second lead over Kazahkstan's Alexandre Vinokourov and a 41-second advantage over Gonzalez, agreed with journalists that his teammate could catch him in Sunday's individual time trial.
"He's (Gonzalez) a teammate, not a rival," Sevilla said. "Besides the important thing is to take the race day by day. We still have a long way to go yet before Madrid."
Perhaps deterred by the heavy terrain, triple stage winner Mario Cipollini brought forward his planned abandon from the Vuelta by two days, and the Italian will now continue training for the World Championships, his final 2002 objective, at home.