2002 Vuelta a España

Template:Short description Template:Short description The 57th edition of the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), a long-distance bicycle stage race and one of the three grand tours, was held from 7 September to 29 September 2002. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and was won by Aitor González of the Kelme–Costa Blanca cycling team.

Joseba Beloki, the second-place finisher of the 2002 Tour de France was part of the winning ONCE–Eroski team that won the opening team time trial of the race. Beloki held the lead until the fifth stage when he lost it to a teammate but on the sixth stage which was won by Roberto Heras. Beloki lost considerable time to other general classification contenders Óscar Sevilla, Aitor González and Heras. Sevilla took the leader's jersey which he had worn for much of the previous edition of the Vuelta. After the first individual time trial, his teammate Aitor González was within one second of the jersey. On stage 15, González increased the pace of the group and put Sevilla in difficulty. Heras profited from this and attacked to take the stage win and the lead. Heras kept the lead until the final day when there was an individual time trial. Heras started the day with a lead of one minute and eight seconds over González but he lost this in the first 25 km of the time trial. González took the lead and won the Vuelta, Heras came second and Beloki recovered to eventually finish third overall. The Vuelta was also marked by three stage wins of Italian sprinter Mario Cipollini who retired from the race after his third stage win to prepare for the World Championships.

During stage 15 riders climbed the Alto de l'Angliru in rain. Team cars stalled on the steepest part, some unable to restart because their tires slipped on messages painted by fans. Riders were caught behind them and others had to ride with flat tires because mechanics could not reach them. David Millar crashed three times and protested by handing in his race number a metre from the line. The judges ruled he had not finished the stage and he left the race. He regretted his temper – he had been ninth – and apologised to his team.

Route

List of stages

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	7 September	Valencia – Valencia		File:Team Time Trial Stage.svg	Team time trial	Template:Cycling data ONC
2	8 September	Valencia – Alcoy				Template:Flagathlete
3	9 September	San Vicente del Raspeig – Murcia				Template:Flagathlete
4	10 September	Águilas – Roquetas de Mar				Template:Flagathlete
5	11 September	El Ejido – Sierra Nevada				Template:Flagathlete
6	12 September	Granada – Sierra de la Pandera				Template:Flagathlete
7	13 September	Jaén – Málaga				Template:Flagathlete
8	14 September	Málaga – Ubrique				Template:Flagathlete
9	15 September	Córdoba – Córdoba				Template:Flagathlete
10	16 September	Córdoba – Córdoba		File:Time Trial.svg	Individual time trial	Template:Flagathlete
	17 September				Rest day
11	18 September	Alcobendas – Collado Villalba				Template:Flagathlete
12	19 September	Segovia – Burgos				Template:Flagathlete
13	20 September	Burgos – Santander				Template:Flagathlete
14	21 September	Santander – Gijón				Template:Flagathlete
15	22 September	Gijón – Alto de l'Angliru				Template:Flagathlete
	23 September				Rest day
16	24 September	Avilés – León				Template:Flagathlete
17	25 September	Benavente – Salamanca				Template:Flagathlete
18	26 September	Salamanca – La Covatilla				Template:Flagathlete
19	27 September	Béjar – Ávila				Template:Flagathlete
20	28 September	Ávila – Warner Bros. Park				Template:Flagathlete
21	29 September	Warner Bros. Park – Madrid (Santiago Bernabéu Stadium)		File:Time Trial.svg	Individual time trial	Template:Flagathlete
	Total

Jersey Progress

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Combination classification	Team classification
1	ONCE–Eroski	Joseba Beloki	no award	no award	Joseba Beloki	ONCE–Eroski
2	Danilo Di Luca		Danilo Di Luca	Médéric Clain	Vitoriano Fernandez
3	Mario Cipollini		Erik Zabel		Médéric Clain
4	Mario Cipollini				Vitoriano Fernandez
5	Guido Trentin	Mikel Zarrabeitia			Guido Trentin
6	Roberto Heras	Óscar Sevilla			Félix García Casas
7	Mario Cipollini
8	Aitor González			Gilberto Simoni	Óscar Sevilla
9	Pablo Lastras
10	Aitor González					Kelme–Costa Blanca
11	Pablo Lastras
12	Alessandro Petacchi
13	Giovanni Lombardi					Team Coast
14	Sergei Smetanine
15	Roberto Heras	Roberto Heras			Roberto Heras	Kelme–Costa Blanca
16	Santiago Botero			Aitor Osa
17	Angelo Furlan
18	Santiago Blanco			Roberto Heras
19	José Vicente García Acosta			Aitor Osa
20	Angelo Furlan
21	Aitor González	Aitor González
Final		Aitor González	Erik Zabel	Aitor Osa	Roberto Heras	Kelme–Costa Blanca

General classification (final)

File:Aitor gonzález.jpg

Aitor González (pictured in 2005), won the general classification.

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Template:Flagicon Aitor González	Kelme–Costa Blanca	75h13'52"
2	Template:Flagicon Roberto Heras	U.S. Postal	2'14"
3	Template:Flagicon Joseba Beloki	ONCE–Eroski	3'11"
4	Template:Flagicon Óscar Sevilla	Kelme–Costa Blanca	3'26"
5	Template:Flagicon Iban Mayo	Template:Cycling data Euskaltel	5'42"
6	Template:Flagicon Ángel Casero	Team Coast	6'33"
7	Template:Flagicon Francesco Casagrande	Template:Cycling data FAS	6'38"
8	Template:Flagicon Félix García Casas	Template:Cycling data AUB	6'46"
9	Template:Flagicon Manuel Beltrán	Team Coast	8'29"
10	Template:Flagicon Gilberto Simoni	Template:Cycling data SAE	9'22"
11	Template:Flagicon Haimar Zubeldia	Template:Cycling data Euskaltel	9'49"
12	Template:Flagicon Claus Michael Møller	Template:Cycling data POV	10'16"
13	Template:Flagicon Fabian Jeker	Template:Cycling data POV	11'45"
14	Template:Flagicon David Plaza	Team Coast	11'50"
15	Template:Flagicon Guido Trentin	Cofidis	15'27"
16	Template:Flagicon Rui Sousa	Template:Cycling data POV	16'36"
17	Template:Flagicon Pablo Lastras	iBanesto.com	19'33"
18	Template:Flagicon Tadej Valjavec	Template:Cycling data FAS	23'11"
19	Template:Flagicon Carlos García Quesada	Kelme–Costa Blanca	24'01"
20	Template:Flagicon Danilo Di Luca	Template:Cycling data SAE	30'35"
21	Template:Flagicon Mikel Zarrabeitia	ONCE–Eroski	31'57"
22	Template:Flagicon Luis Pérez	Team Coast	39'42"
23	Template:Flagicon Pietro Caucchioli	Template:Cycling data ALB	43'54"
24	Template:Flagicon Vladimir Miholjević	Template:Cycling data ALB	50'13"
25	Template:Flagicon Christian Vande Velde	U.S. Postal	52'50"

External links

• La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French)