COLLADO VILLALBA, 25 September 2004 — Spain’s Constantino Zaballa, riding for the Saunier Duval team, broke away early in the day for a courageous win in yesterday’s 19th stage of the Tour of Spain.
Zaballa raced clear after 40 km of the 142-km stage from Avila to Collado Villalba and was never headed but compatriot Roberto Heras moved a day closer to a record-equalling third overall victory when he kept the race lead with two stages left. Heras finished 19th in the main bunch, six minutes 25 seconds behind Zaballa who was 1:23 ahead of his closest pursuers, a group of 15 riders. Second was Moldavian Ruslan Ivanov and third the 2004 Tour of Italy winner, Italian Damiano Cunego.
Zaballa took off after 40 km, maintaining an advantage of up to three minutes on the five classified climbs that followed. An insect bite in the second hour of racing did not discourage him and he finally clocked a time of three hours 33 minutes and 32 seconds for the stage.
It was the second stage win of the race for the Saunier Duval team who are new to cycling in 2004 and Zaballa’s first in a major Tour.
Zaballa dedicated the victory to his mother who died of cancer recently. Overall, Heras retained his advantage of 1:13 over his closest pursuer, Spaniard Santiago Perez. Another Spaniard, Alejandro Valverde, lies third, 2:15 back.
King of the Mountains, Abdicates
In Paris, French rider Richard Virenque, a record seven times King of the Mountains in the Tour de France, will retire at the end of the season when he turns 35.
Virenque, who turned professional in 1991, will bow out of the sport as one of France’s most popular riders although he never matched the success of five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault or double Tour winner Laurent Fignon.
Once the bad boy of the sport for his role in the Festina doping scandal which rocked the Tour in 1998 and led to a later suspension, the Frenchman resurrected his career years ago.
Virenque followed a third place in the 1996 Tour de France with second in 1997, but a year later his Festina squad was ejected from the race after customs officers found a stash of banned drugs in a team car.
At a trial, Virenque was cleared of charges that he helped supply drugs to his teammates. However, he caused a furor with his testimony which claimed there was systematic drug use in cycling. His admission of doping led to a ban that kept him out of the 2001 Tour, and he admitted he thought his career was over.
Armstrong Bonus In Limbo
In Los Angeles, a $5 million bonus promised to American Lance Armstrong for his record-breaking sixth Tour de France triumph is in legal limbo. Dallas firm SCA Promotions is withholding the bonus pending its own investigation into doping allegations raised in the book “L.A. Confidential,” an unauthorized Armstrong biography published in France in June.
SCA has already paid bonuses totaling $4.5 million to Armstrong after previous Tour victories. Armstrong, who has consistently denied using performance enhancing drugs, has denied the allegations in the book and is suing the publisher and authors for defamation.
Hamilton Can Still Be Suspended
Although a mistake has ensured US cyclist Tyler Hamilton keeps the gold medal he won in Athens at the Olympics, he can still be suspended by the American Cycling Federation.
The IOC had on Thursday announced that it stopped disciplinary procedures against Hamilton and that the IOC would not be pursuing sanctions.
