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52nd Vuelta Asturias - 2.1
Spain, May 3-7, 2008
2007 results Schedule Preview Start List Past winners
The Stages
- Stage 1 - May 3: Oviedo - Gijón, 158.2km
- Stage 2a - May 4: Gijón - Llanes, 95.5km
- Stage 2b - May 4: Nueva - Llanes ITT, 17.2km
- Stage 3 - May 5: LLanes - Avilés, 168.2km
- Stage 4 - May 6: Pravia - El Acebo, 180.2km
- Stage 5 - May 7: Cangas de Narcea - Oviedo, 184.4km
Time trialers will see light of day
By Monika Prell
The 52nd Vuelta a Asturias will run from May 3 to 7, with a total distance of over 800 kilometres. The race added "Julio Alvarez Mendo" to its official name this year, in honour of the organiser and one of the mentors of Asturian cycling. Contrary to last year's edition, there will be an individual time trial.
The first stage on Saturday will start in the Asturian capital Oviedo and lead the riders over 158.2 kilometres to the north, heading towards the Atlantic coast. Four mountains of the second category, the Alto la Colladona, the Alto La Faya de los lobos, the Alto de la Fumarea and then – only fifteen kilometres before the finish line in Gijón – the Alto San Martín de Huerces, with an ascent of 12 percent over 2.5 kilometres, will define the stage.
On Sunday, the organisers have planned two stages, one in the morning and an individual time trial in the afternoon. The first part of the day will lead the peloton from Gijón to Llanes, 95.5 kilometres along the coast of the Costa Verde, where surely the wind will play an important role, even if the stage is totally flat., Despite the wind, a bunch sprint is expected.
For the time trial in the afternoon the riders will do the last 17.2 kilometres of the morning stage again, but with little protection from the wind as they will have to go one by one. The start is in Nueva, with the finish the same as in the morning, in Llanes.
The third stage on Monday gives the riders a chance to recover, as they will have to climb only one mountain during the 168.2 kilometres. The Alto de la Rebollada (third category) will await them already 33 kilometres into the stage. This stage will surely attract breakaway groups, but the sprinters' teams will try everything to let the stage end in a mass sprint. The favourites will conserve their energy for the decisive fourth stage.
The queen stage of the race with 180.2 kilometres from Pravia (Café Toscaf) to the Alto del Acebo will include three mountains, one of the first category, the Alto del Pozo de las Mujeres muertas after 97.9 kilometres; the Puerto el Connio of the hors category after 139.7 kilometres; and finally, the stage will end in a mountain top finish, ascending to the Santuario del Acebo, also an hors category climb.
After this hard stage, the longest stage of this year's edition on Wednesday will include the Alto Del Rodical (second category), and the organisers decided to add in one of the numerous little mountains for points, in forma of a third category rise – the Alto del Pito. This stage from Cangas del Narcea to the capital Oviedo could mean the victory of an escaped rider, as in the general classification, there won't be any changes.
The Vuelta will consist of 17 teams, one more than last year. Two Pro Tour teams (Euskaltel - Euskadi and Saunier Duval - Scott) will have to look out for the motivated Pro Continental and Continental teams. Seven Spanish squads, Karpin Galicia, Andalucía - Cajasur, Extremadura - Grupo Gallardo, Contentpolis - Murcia, Burgos Monumental, Orbea Oreka and the Spanish national selection, will have to compete with three teams from Portugal (Liberty Seguros, Benfica and LA Aluminios MSS), four Italian teams (Ceramica Flaminia - Basinni, Acqua & Sapone - Café Mokambo, Tinkoff Credit Systems and Serramenti PVD - Selle Italia) and the British Barloworld team.
The favourites are last year's winner Koldo Gil from Liberty Seguros, the Asturian Samuel Sánchez from Euskaltel - Euskadi, Saunier Duval's David de la Fuente, the Karpin Galicia Ezequiel Mosquera, who showed his great competition form in the Vuelta al País Vasco, and Stefano Garzelli from Acqua & Sapone.
The Vuelta will see some great riders, like Pablo Urtasun and Isidro Nozal (Liberty Seguros), but especially last year's winner of the Vuelta al País Vasco, Juan José Cobo from Saunier Duval - Scott. In addition there are Barloworld's John Lee Augustyn and the Portuguese José Azevedo from Benfica, who is competing his last season. Spaniard Ricardo Serrano from Tinkoff is back after being sidelined for one month due to a lesion. He will try to search good form.
The Spaniards Angel Vicioso and Constantino Zaballa will go for stage wins for the LA Aluminios MSS team, while last year's double stage winner Rodrigo García from Extremadura is looking to repeat his stunning performance.
José Miguel Elias from Contentpolis Murcia is trying to prove that the new team can deliver results, while David Belda will form part of the Spanish selection.
Start list
Liberty Seguros Euskaltel - Euskadi
1 Koldo Gil Perez (Spa) 11 Beñat Albizuri Aransolo (Spa)
2 Antonio Jesús (Por) 12 Francisco Javier Aramendia (Spa)
3 Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) 13 Yon Bru Pascal (Spa)
4 Filipe Cardoso (Por) 14 Aitor Hernandez Gutierrez (Spa)
5 Isidro Nozal Vega (Spa) 15 Andoni Lafuente (Spa)
6 Hernani Broco (Por) 16 Antton Luengo Celaya (Spa)
7 Carlos Nozal Vega (Spa) 17 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa)
8 José Rodrigues (Por) 18 Gorka Verdugo Marcotegi (Spa)
Saunier Duval - Scott Karpin Galicia
21 Ermanno Capelli (Ita) 31 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa)
22 Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) 32 David Garcia Dapena (Spa)
23 David De La Fuente Rasilla (Spa) 33 Ramón Troncoso Sobrino (Spa)
24 Raúl Alarcón (Spa) 34 Juan Francisco Mourón Doldán (Spa)
25 Jesús Del Nero Montes (Spa) 35 Gonzalo Rabuñal Ríos (Spa)
26 Hector González Baeza (Spa) 36 Alejandro Paleo (Spa)
27 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) 37 Vladimir Isaychev (Rus)
28 Javier Megías Leal (Spa) 38 Delio Fernández Cruz (Spa)
41 José Antonio Redondo Ramos (Spa)
Andalucía - Cajasur Barloworld
42 Cecilio Gutierrez Pastor (Spa) 51 John-Lee Augustyn (RSA)
43 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) 52 Robert Hunter (RSA)
44 Manuel Ortega Ocana (Spa) 53 Giampaolo Cheula (Ita)
45 José Luis Carrasco Gamiz (Spa) 54 Marco Corti (Ita)
46 Francisco Jose Martinez Perez (Spa) 55 Moisés Dueñas Nevado (Spa)
47 Claudio José Casas Gallego (Spa) 56 Christopher Froome (Ken)
48 Antonio Piedra Perez (Spa) 57 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita)
58 Hugo Sabido (Por)
Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo Benfica
61 Dario Andriotto (Ita) 71 José Azevedo (Por)
62 Stefano Cavallari (Ita) 72 Danail Andonov Petrov (Bul)
63 Massimo Codol (Ita) 73 Bruno Castanheira (Por)
64 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) 74 Helder Miranda (Por)
65 Andrei Kunitski (Blr) 75 Tiago Claro (Por)
66 Francesco Masciarelli (Ita) 76 Hugo De Matos Sancho (Por)
67 Diego Milán Jiménez (Spa) 77 Mikel Pradera Rodríguez (Spa)
68 Branislau Samoilau (Blr) 78 Edgar Pinto (Por)
Tinkoff Credit Systems Cermica Flaminia Bossini Doce
81 Ricardo Serrano González (Spa) 91 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol)
82 Nikita Eskov (Rus) 92 Cristiano Fumagalli (Ita)
83 Alexander Gottfried (Ger) 93 Vladimir Duma (Ukr)
84 Daniele Contrini (Ita) 94 Maurizio Biondo (Ita)
85 Yauhen Sobal (Blr) 95 Hubert Krys (Pol)
86 Bernardo Riccio (Ita) 96 Umberto Nardecchia (Ita)
87 Ivan Rovny (Rus) 97 Ricardo Martins (Por)
88 Walter Fernando Pedraza Morales (Col) 98 Luigi Sestili (Ita)
Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli LA MSS
101 Santo Anzà (Ita) 111 Pedro Romero Ocampo (Spa)
102 Emiliano Donadello (Ita) 112 Bruno Pires (Por)
103 Jackson Rodriguez (Ven) 113 João Cabreira (Por)
104 Richard Ochoa Quintero (Ven) 114 Alfonso Azevedo (Por)
105 Roberto Cobo Gonzalez (Spa) 115 Angel Vicioso Arcos (Spa)
106 Roger Beuchat (Swi) 116 Constantin Zaballa Gutierrez (Spa)
107 Manuel Belletti (Ita) 117 José Antonio Garrido Lima (Spa)
108 Roberto Traficante (Ita) 118 Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spa)
Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo Contentpolis - Murcia
121 Jesus Ramirez Torres (Spa) 131 Julian Sanchez Pimienta (Spa)
122 Rodrigo Garcia Rena (Spa) 132 José Miguel Elías Galindo (Spa)
123 José Terciado Sacedo (Spa) 133 Manuel Calvente Corpas (Spa)
124 Josu Mondelo (Spa) 134 José Carlos Lopez (Spa)
125 Sergio Herrero Dominguez (Spa) 135 Manuel Vazquez Hueso (Spa)
126 Israel Perez Rodriguez (Spa) 136 Ruben Reig Conejero (Spa)
127 Enrique Salgueiro (Spa) 137 Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Spa)
128 Jaume Rovira Pous (Spa) 138 Alberto Rodriguez Oliver (Spa)
Orbea - Oreka S.D.A Burgos Monumental
141 Iván Melero Coco (Spa) 151 Diego Gallego Arnaiz (Spa)
142 Miguel Minguez Ayala (Spa) 152 David Francisco Delgado (Spa)
143 Eladio Sánchez Prado (Spa) 153 Luis Roberto Alvarez Martin (Spa)
144 Mikel Nieve Iturralde (Spa) 154 Oscar Pujol (Spa)
145 Sergio De Lis Andrés (Spa) 155 Sergio Pardilla Bellón (Spa)
146 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) 156 Joaquin Sobrino Martinez (Spa)
147 Aitor Olano Orbegozo (Spa) 157 Raul Santamarta (Spa)
148 Daniel Sesma (Spa) 158 Andres Antuña Coro (Spa)
Spanish National Team
161 David Vitoria (Spa)
162 Ismael Esteban Agüero (Spa)
163 Luis Maldonado Cano (Spa)
164 David Garcia Dapena (Spa)
165 Mario De Sarraga Orviz (Spa)
166 Daniel Ania González (Spa)
167 Manuel Lloret Zaragoza (Spa)
168 Óscar García-Casarrubios Pintor (Spa)
Past winners
2007 Koldo Gil Perez (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir 2006 Oscar Sevilla Ribera (Spa) T-Mobile Team 2005 Adolfo García Quesada (Spa) Comunidad Valenciana 2004 Iban Mayo Diez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2003 Fabian Jeker (Swi) Milaneza-MSS 2002 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) iBanesto.com 2001 Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spa) iBanesto.com 2000 Joseba Beloki (Spa) Festina 1999 Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros 1998 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE 1997 Manuel Fernandez-Gines (Spa) 1996 Miguel Indurain (Spa) 1995 Beat Zberg (Swi) 1994 Abraham Olano (Spa) 1993 Erik Breukink (Ned) 1992 Alex Zülle (Swi) 1991 Pjotr Ugrumow (Let) 1990 Raul Alcala (Mex) 1989 Gert-Jan Theunisse (Ned) 1988 Rolf Gölz (Ger) 1987 Inaki Gaston (Spa) 1986 J. Rodriguez Magro (Spa) 1985 Jesus Blanco-Villar (Spa) 1984 Faustino Ruperez (Spa) 1983 Pedro Munoz (Spa) 1982 Jesus Ibanez (Spa) 1981 Angel Arroyo (Spa) 1980 Faustino Ruperez (Spa) 1979 A. Fernandez-Blanco (Spa) 1978 E. Martinez-Heredia (Spa) 1977 Vicente Lopez-Carril (Spa) 1976 Santiago Lazcano (Spa) 1975 Miguel-Maria Lasa (Spa) 1974 Sentisteban (Spa) 1973 Jesus Manzaneque (Spa) 1972 Augustine Tamames (Spa) 1971 Edouardo Castello (Spa) 1970 Antonio Martos (Spa) 1969 Andres Oliva (Spa) 1968 Jesus Manzaneque (Spa) 1957 Federico Bahamontes (Spa) 1956 Hernan (Spa) 1955 Federico Bahamontes (Spa) 1954 Bernardo Ruiz (Spa) 1953 Antonio Gelabert (Spa) 1950 Miguel Gual (Spa) 1947 Emilio Rodriguez (Spa) 1928 Riccardo Mucio (Spa) 1927 Miguel Mucio (Spa) 1926 Riccardo Montero (Spa) 1925 Barruetabena (Spa) Past winners by Mario Stiehl, www.world-of-cycling.com
