2004 Vuelta a España

Template:Short description Template:Short description The 59th 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 4 September to 26 September 2004. It consisted of 21 stages covering a total of , and was won by Roberto Heras of the Liberty Seguros cycling team.

Halfway through the 2004 Vuelta, it appeared it would become an easy win for Heras, but in the last week his fellow countryman Santiago Pérez won two heavy mountain stages, thus becoming an important rival. Eventually Heras won with only 30 seconds advantage on Pérez. Pérez and Phonak hearing systems teammate Tyler Hamilton would later test positive for blood doping from blood samples taken during the race. Francisco Mancebo, also from Spain took third. The first non-Spaniard was Stefano Garzelli from Italy in 11th. The points classification was won by Erik Zabel from Germany, the mountains classification was won by Félix Cárdenas from Colombia and the combination classification was won by Roberto Heras. Kelme was the winner of the team ranking. Alessandro Petacchi, an Italian sprinter won four stages, but he did not finish the Vuelta.

Route

List of stages

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	4 September	León – León		File:Team Time Trial Stage.svg	Team time trial	Template:Cycling data USP
2	5 September	León – Burgos				Template:Flagathlete
3	6 September	Burgos – Soria				Template:Flagathlete
4	7 September	Soria – Zaragoza				Template:Flagathlete
5	8 September	Zaragoza – Morella				Template:Flagathlete
6	9 September	Benicarló – Castellón de la Plana				Template:Flagathlete
7	10 September	Castellón de la Plana – Valencia				Template:Flagathlete
8	11 September	Almussafes – Almussafes		File:Time Trial.svg	Individual time trial	Tyler Hamilton Template:Flagathlete
9	12 September	Xàtiva – Alto de Aitana				Template:Flagathlete
10	13 September	Alcoy – Xorret de Catí				Template:Flagathlete
11	14 September	San Vicente del Raspeig – Caravaca de la Cruz				David Zabriskie
	15 September				Rest day
12	16 September	Almería – Calar Alto Observatory				Template:Flagathlete
13	17 September	El Ejido – Málaga				Template:Flagathlete
14	18 September	Málaga – Granada				Template:Flagathlete
15	19 September	Granada – Sierra Nevada		File:Mountain Time Trial Stage.svg	Individual time trial	Template:Flagathlete
	20 September				Rest day
16	21 September	Olivenza – Cáceres				Template:Flagathlete
17	22 September	Plasencia – La Covatilla				Template:Flagathlete
18	23 September	Béjar – Ávila				Template:Flagathlete
19	24 September	Ávila – Collado Villalba				Template:Flagathlete
20	25 September	Alcobendas – Puerto de Navacerrada				Template:Flagathlete
21	26 September	Madrid – Madrid		File:Time Trial.svg	Individual time trial	Template:Flagathlete
	Total

Jersey progress

Stage (Winner)	General classification	Points Classification	Mountains Classification	Combination Classification	Team Classification
0Stage 1 (TTT) (Template:Cycling data DSC)	Floyd Landis	Floyd Landis	Floyd Landis	Floyd Landis	Template:Cycling data DSC
0Stage 2 (Alessandro Petacchi)	Max van Heeswijk	Erik Zabel
0Stage 3 (Alejandro Valverde)	Benoît Joachim	Stuart O'Grady
0Stage 4 (Alessandro Petacchi)		Erik Zabel
0Stage 5 (Denis Menchov)	Manuel Beltrán	Stuart O'Grady	Juan Manuel Gárate
0Stage 6 (Óscar Freire)			Francisco Mancebo	Manuel Beltrán
0Stage 7 (Alessandro Petacchi)		Erik Zabel		Denis Menchov
0Stage 8 (Tyler Hamilton)	Floyd Landis			Floyd Landis
0Stage 9 (Leonardo Piepoli)			David Fernández	Francisco Mancebo
0Stage 10 (Eladio Jiménez)		Stuart O'Grady	José Miguel Elías		Template:Cycling data KEL
0Stage 11 (David Zabriskie)				Alejandro Valverde
0Stage 12 (Roberto Heras)	Roberto Heras		Roberto Heras	Roberto Heras
0Stage 13 (Alessandro Petacchi)		Erik Zabel
0Stage 14 (Santiago Pérez)
0Stage 15 (ITT) (Santiago Pérez)
0Stage 16 (José Julía)
0Stage 17 (Félix Cárdenas)			Félix Cárdenas
0Stage 18 (Javier Pascual Rodríguez)
0Stage 19 (Constantino Zaballa)
0Stage 20 (José Enrique Gutiérrez)
0Stage 21 (ITT) (Santiago Pérez)
Final	Roberto Heras	Erik Zabel	Félix Cárdenas	Roberto Heras	Template:Cycling data KEL

General classification (final)

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LST	77h42'46"
2	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data PHO	30"
3	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data MOV	2'13"
4	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data KEL	3'30"
5	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data KEL	7'44"
6	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data CSC	8'11"
7	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LST	8'32"
8	Template:Flagathlete	Paternina–Costa de Almería	13'08"
9	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data COF	13'24"
10	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data KEL	15'15"
11	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data VIN	16'33"
12	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LST	17'14"
13	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC	17'43"
14	Template:Flagathlete	Paternina–Costa de Almería	24'16"
15	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data EUS	29'23"
16	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data SAE	29'51"
17	Template:Flagathlete	Paternina–Costa de Almería	30'49"
18	Template:Flagathlete	Cafe Baque	31'24"
19	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data KEL	34'35"
20	Template:Flagathlete	Relax–Bergasol	37'49"
21	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data MOV	38'06"

External links

• La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French)
• Cyclingnews.com 2004 Vuelta a Espana coverage