CANGAS DE ONIS, Spain, 8 September 2003 — Spaniard Luis Perez of the Cofidis team scored his maiden win in the second stage of the Tour of Spain here yesterday, a 148km ride between Gijon and Cangas de Onis. Spain’s Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano was overtaken as the overall race leader by ONCE teammate Joaquin Rodriguez.
Perez, 29, won a sprint finish to come in ahead of fellow breakaway rider Carlos Sastre, after the duo went it alone following a first category climb some 20km from the line.
The pair came in some 15 seconds ahead of the peloton made up notably of Alejandro Valverde, Gonzalez de Galdeano, Heras and Oscar Sevilla.
Defending champion Aitor Gonzalez and 2001 winner Angel Casero dropped a minute, while American pretender Levi Leipheimer has scuppered his chances by finishing four minutes off the pace. Italian sprint star Mario Cipollini pulled out of the race before the stage got under way.
The world champion, who had been forced to compete in the race after a row between organizers and his Domina Vacanze team, struggled during Saturday’s 28km time-trial, and left for the airport early Sunday before the 148km stage from Gijon to Cangas de Onis.
The 36-year-old Tuscan ace known as ‘Super Mario’ has won 12 stages in the Tour de France and a record 42 stages in the Tour of Italy and would have been a major attraction for the Vuelta.
“I’m here so that my teammates can start,” Cipollini had complained to journalists.
