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.
Teams and riders
Route
+List of stages Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 4 September León to León Team time trial 2 5 September León to Burgos 3 6 September Burgos to Soria 4 7 September Soria to Zaragoza 5 8 September Zaragoza to Morella 6 9 September Benicarló to Castellón de la Plana 7 10 September Castellón de la Plana to Valencia 8 11 September Almussafes to Almussafes Individual time trial Tyler Hamilton 9 12 September Xàtiva to Alto de Aitana 10 13 September Alcoy to Xorret de Catí 11 14 September San Vicente del Raspeig to Caravaca de la Cruz David Zabriskie 15 September Rest day 12 16 September Almería to Calar Alto Observatory 13 17 September El Ejido to Málaga 14 18 September Málaga to Granada 15 19 September Granada to Sierra Nevada Individual time trial 20 September Rest day 16 21 September Olivenza to Cáceres 17 22 September Plasencia to La Covatilla 18 23 September Béjar to Ávila 19 24 September Ávila to Collado Villalba 20 25 September Alcobendas to Puerto de Navacerrada 21 26 September Madrid to Madrid Individual time trial Total
Jersey progress
Stage(Winner) General classification Points Classification Mountains Classification Combination Classification Team Classification Stage 1 (TTT)() Floyd Landis Floyd Landis Floyd Landis Floyd Landis Stage 2 (Alessandro Petacchi) Max van Heeswijk Erik Zabel Stage 3 (Alejandro Valverde) Benoît Joachim Stuart O'Grady Stage 4 (Alessandro Petacchi) Erik Zabel Stage 5 (Denis Menchov) Manuel Beltrán Stuart O'Grady Juan Manuel Gárate Stage 6 (Óscar Freire) Francisco Mancebo Manuel Beltrán Stage 7 (Alessandro Petacchi) Erik Zabel Denis Menchov Stage 8 (Tyler Hamilton) Floyd Landis Floyd Landis Stage 9 (Leonardo Piepoli) David Fernández Francisco Mancebo Stage 10 (Eladio Jiménez) Stuart O'Grady José Miguel Elías Stage 11 (David Zabriskie) Alejandro Valverde Stage 12 (Roberto Heras) Roberto Heras Roberto Heras Roberto Heras Stage 13 (Alessandro Petacchi) Erik Zabel Stage 14 (Santiago Pérez) Stage 15 (ITT) (Santiago Pérez) Stage 16 (José Julía) Stage 17 (Félix Cárdenas) Félix Cárdenas Stage 18 (Javier Pascual Rodríguez) Stage 19 (Constantino Zaballa) Stage 20 (José Enrique Gutiérrez) Stage 21 (ITT) (Santiago Pérez) Final Roberto Heras Erik Zabel Félix Cárdenas Roberto Heras
General classification (final) RankRiderTeamTime1 77h42'46"2 30"3 2'13"4 3'30"5 7'44"6 8'11"7 8'32"8Paternina–Costa de Almería 13'08"9 13'24"10 15'15"11 16'33"12 17'14"13 17'43"14Paternina–Costa de Almería 24'16"15 29'23"16 29'51"17Paternina–Costa de Almería 30'49"18Cafe Baque 31'24"19 34'35"20Relax–Bergasol 37'49"21 38'06"
References
External links La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French) Cyclingnews.com 2004 Vuelta a Espana coverage