ARGAMASILLA DE ALBA, Spain, 31 August 2005 — Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi settled any doubts over who is the fastest rider in the Tour of Spain by winning his second successive stage yesterday.
The Fassa Bortolo rider powered home in a tight sprint finish to the 232.3-kilometer fourth stage from Ciudad Real to Argamasilla de Alba, holding off the challenge of Norwegian Thor Hushovd and German Erik Zabel.
Petacchi opened up the throttle 200 meters from the line to clinch the 14th victory of his career in the Tour of Spain and his 37th in major Tours. Hushovd finished second with Zabel third.
“Winning today was trickier than on stage three, because yesterday I was the first sprinter to accelerate,” said the 31-year-old from La Spezia.
“Instead I had to respond to (Belgian sprinter) Tom Steels when he upped the speed.” “Also, the stage was almost 100 kilometers longer than yesterday’s, but I felt stronger because stage three’s victory gave me great morale.” Leader of the Tour’s points competition, Petacchi calculated that five more stages were likely to end in bunch sprints.
However, he denied his domination of the sprints in the Tour of Spain automatically made him favorite for the world road championships on Sept. 25.
“I still need to gain more race condition. Just because I’m top sprinter in the Tour of Spain doesn’t mean I’ll be top sprinter in the world’s,” said the Italian.
Visibly relaxed, Petacchi drew a parallel between himself and the last Italian to win the world title, Mario Cipollini in 2002.
“Mario won (the major Italian one-day race) Milan-San Remo and the world’s in the same year,” he recalled.
Ballerini added: “Petacchi showed that he could counter attacks by other sprinters in the finish and beat them. That’s an excellent omen.” Australian Bradley McGee continued as race leader for a third consecutive day, although the Francaise des Jeux rider was unable to pick up any bonus seconds at intermediate sprints to stretch his advantage. The Tour of Spain finishes on Sept. 18 in Madrid.
