Vuelta Update – Stage 1 to Stage 4

September 4th, 2007 by Ron Callahan View Comments

Here’s the results for the first 4 stages of the Vuelta:

Stage 1: Daniele Bennati wins the first stage with Oscar Freire, Alessandro Pettachi, Allen Davis and Tom Boonen rounding out the Top 5.

Stage 2: Oscar Freire outsprints Paolo Bettini to win the stage and take over the lead. The controversial Erik Zabel is second in the G.C. with Leonardo Duque, Aurelien Clerc and Alessandro Pettachi taking the remainder of the Top 5.

Stage 3: World Champ Paolo Bettini gets Oscar Freire back for yesterday’s sprint and takes today’s stage. Freire holds on the golden jersey, however. Leonardo Duque moves to second, while Zabel drops to third. Rene Mandri and David Lopez take 4th and 5th, respectively.

Stage 4: Vladimir Efimkin of Caisse d’Epargne survives a long breakaway to take the 5th stage and the golden jersey. The G.C. gets really tossed up, with Denis Menchov, Carlos Sastre, Maxime Monfort and the guy with the coolest name in cycling, Stijn Devolder in the next 4 spots.

I’ll have more detailed daily posts from here on out.