Petacchi wins Tour's longest stage

BURGOS, Spain (Reuters) -- Alessandro Petacchi continued the Italian domination of the bunch sprints in the Tour of Spain on Thursday when he won the 12th stage, then sparked controversy by saying he will challenge compatriot Mario Cipollini in next week's world championships in Zolder.

Cipollini quit the Tour of Spain last Saturday, having won three stages, to prepare for the championships in Belgium, but Fassa Bortolo's Petacchi looked equally impressive as he won the 210.5 kilometer stage, the longest in this year's race, in four hours 16 minutes 32 seconds.

The world championships is expected to be decided by a bunch sprint with Cipollini leading the Italian team, but Petacchi said after finishing in Burgos that he will be going for victory.

"There will be two or three (leaders) because that way if one leader has a problem like a crash or a puncture then the others are there to ride as well," said Petacchi.

"There is room for two sprinters, including one like me, in reserve, in the national squad. It won't give me any pleasure at all to work for Cipollini at Zolder. He has already won a lot of races this year."

Despite lacking any support from his team mates in the final kilometer, Petacchi won the bunch sprint by more than a bike length ahead of German Erik Zabel and Italian Angelo Furlan.

Already a double stage winner in the Tour of Spain in 2000, Petacchi added a third to his record when he accelerated hard on the long, broad Calle de la Victoria -- Victory Street.

"I went with 250 meters to go in what was a good clean sprint," the 28-year-old from La Spezia said afterwards.

"My team did a great job reeling in the breaks of the day, so it was up to me to play it alone in the final meters."

He dedicated the victory to his grandfather who died while Petacchi was racing the first week of the event.

Petacchi's win is the sixth by an Italian on the Tour of Spain this year, level with Spain who have won the other six. The overall classification is dominated by home riders, however, with the top five places being occupied by Spaniards.

There were no major changes on stage 12 with Kelme-Costa Blanca rider Oscar Sevilla still top of the standings.

Mechanical problem

Further down German Jorg Jaksche, lying eighth overall before the stage, dropped two places when he had a mechanical problem in the final kilometers and had to borrow a ONCE-Eroski teammate's bike.

Earlier the stage, ridden at an average of 49.2kmh, had been dominated by an 18-man break containing no contenders for the overall classification.

The leading group was reduced to six with 35 kilometers remaining before Spain's Antonio Tauler made a lone move on a long rise close to Burgos.

The Kelme-Costa Blanca rider was caught by the Telekom and Fassa Bortolo-led peloton with 1,700 meters to the line before Petacchi's sprint to the finish.

Sevilla, who has now worn the leader's jersey for exactly a week, said: "These stages are always nervous and complicated to control, but with Tony Tauler in the break we could relax a little.

"Hopefully the weather will stay good because there is always the risk of a crash at the wrong moment, but so far things are going just as we want."

 

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