GRENADA, 20 September 2004 — Spain’s Santiago Perez, of the Phonak team, won his second consecutive stage on the Tour of Spain here yesterday following a two-year victory drought. Perez won the 29.6km 15th stage time-trial from Grenada to the summit finish at Sierra Nevada in the south of the country. Spain’s Roberto Heras, of the Liberty team, retained the overall lead ahead of compatriot Alejandro Valverde.
Perez finished 1min 51sec ahead of third-placed Heras and 1:07 in front of Valverde, who was second, and jumped three places to third overall, 1:45 behind Heras. And Valverde, who almost quit because of a serious fall, did himself the world of good as he ate into Heras’ lead and is now just 5sec adrift. Francisco Mancebo, second overall at the start of the stage, could only finish in fifth place, 3:18 behind the winner and dropped to fourth overall.
