MADRID, 27 September 2004 — Roberto Heras became only the second rider to claim three Tour of Spain title’s yesterday when he held off a charging Santiago Perez in the final stage. Only Swiss Tony Rominger had previously managed to win the race three times with a hat trick of triumphs between 1992-1994.
Perez began the final stage, a 28.2-km time trial, 43 seconds behind Heras and powered through the Madrid streets, but could only slice 13 seconds off the lead. Francisco Mancebo finished second on the final stage, and third overall, to complete a Spanish sweep of the podium.
Heras, who held on for fourth place in the final time trial, thanked his Liberty Seguros team for helping him add another victory to his titles in 2000 and 2003.
“I was worried about the final time trial, and I’ve been worried about Perez all week, but in the last three kilometers of the race I knew I had the win in the bag,” he said. “I wanted to show what I was capable of after such a bad Tour de France,” added Heras who abandoned in the Alps.
Heras started the race badly when Liberty Seguros finished a disappointing eighth in the opening team time trial in Leon. But after riding above himself in the stage eight individual time trial in Almussafes, the Spanish climber moved into the overall lead when he came home alone on stage 12 to the mountain top finish in Calar Alto.
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde came within five seconds of taking the lead after Heras suffered badly on the stage 15 time trial to Sierra Nevada.
But Valverde could not handle the high mountains of the last week and it was the unfancied Perez who emerged as Heras’ leading rival with some inspired displays.
Perez, who had been four minutes 22 seconds behind Heras after stage 12, cut the deficit to just 43 seconds by the final day following his spectacular performances in the hills of Andalucia and the mountain stages in La Covatilla and Puerto de Navacerrada.
Like Perez, Spanish national champion Mancebo was also a newcomer to the podium of a major Tour. King of he Mountains for a second year running was Colombian Felix Cardenas, the winner of stage 17 to La Covatilla.
The points competition went to German veteran Erik Zabel for a third consecutive year, whilst CV-Kelme were the winners of the team prize for a third time in their 25-year history.
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