ZARAGOZA, 8 September 2004 — For the second year running Alessandro Petacchi won a bunch sprint at the Tour of Spain in Zaragoza to take his second stage of the 2004 race.

However, Petacchi’s victory at the end of the 167.5 km fourth stage from Soria, for which he clocked a time of four hours 23 minutes and one second, was tough to come by.

Less than a wheel length separated the Italian, who now has 10 Tour of Spain stage wins in his career, from German Erik Zabel with former world champion Spaniard Oscar Freire third.

“I knew it was going to be close because of the winds which made it a lot harder for a team throughout the stage,” said the Fassa Bortolo rider, who amassed nine stage wins in this year’s Giro d’Italia.

“We discussed working together with Erik (Zabel) and his T-Mobile team because we were both interested in a bunch sprint but then in the last 50 meters I lost sight of him.”

“I turned round to see where he was and ended up taking the stage by very little but the important thing was to win.”

After winning in Burgos earlier in the race, Petacchi’s total of 19 wins this season makes him the rider with most victories, while Monday’s stage winner, Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, is the next most successful with 15.

Asked if, like Valverde, he wished to make the world championship his next target, the 30-year-old from La Spezia said he would not take part “because it is too hard for me”.

“I will race Paris-Tours and that will be my season over,” he said referring to the World Cup event he lost to Zabel in the final meters last year.

Luxembourg’s Benoit Joachim of US Postal was race leader for a second day but the strong head and cross winds combined with several mid-stage crashes made it a tough day for the peloton.

Leading contender American Tyler Hamilton went down in a four-man pile up at 112 km but was able to continue.

“He has grazes in his right side, elbow, hip and leg but basically he was OK,” official race doctor Juan Maria Irigoyen said but others had their doubts.

“Tyler says he’s OK but that’s what he said after he crashed in the Tour de France and then he abandoned,” said Hamilton’s Phonak team manager Spaniard Alvaro Pino.

Other leading riders with problems on Tuesday’s stage included Russian Denis Menchov and Spaniard Joseba Beloki, who both had punctures in the final km. Italian Damiano Cunego, the 2004 Giro d’Italia winner, hit a rut in the road 20 km from the finish, grazed his left leg and was forced to change bikes.

Meanwhile, a British citizen is due to be charged under Spanish security law after flinging a five kilogram rock into the peloton during stage three of the Tour.

The rock struck the bike of Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, third in the 2003 Tour de France and a leading race contender, reportedly destroying one of his wheels.

The man was identified later by Spanish police as English and was due to fly back to the United Kingdom on Wednesday. They have so far failed to discover a motive for the attack.

Cyclist Rogers Crowned 2003 Time Trial World Champ

In Aigle, Switzerland, Michael Rogers of Australia was awarded the 2003 time trial world title by the International Cycling Union yesterday after British rider David Millar decided not to appeal his drug-related disqualification.

The silver and bronze medals go to German riders Uwe Peschel and Michael Rich, respectively.

Millar was given a two-year suspension by his cycling federation after telling a French judge he used EPO. He voluntarily withdrew from the British Olympic team and was barred from this summer’s Tour de France.

French police raided Millar’s home in Biarritz, France, in late June as part of a doping investigation into his pro team, Cofidis, and found two used syringes. Millar, 27, told a French judge he used the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO on three separate occasions, once in 2001 and twice in 2003. Millar could have opted to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.