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.Procycling, UK, November 2003 Riders were caught behind them and others had to ride with flat tires because mechanics could not reach them. David Millar crashed three timesProcycling, UK, November 2002 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.No way back for MillarEpica y polémica He regretted his temper – he had been ninth – and apologised to his team.
Teams and riders
Route
+List of stages Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 7 September Valencia to Valencia Team time trial 2 8 September Valencia to Alcoy 3 9 September San Vicente del Raspeig to Murcia 4 10 September Águilas to Roquetas de Mar 5 11 September El Ejido to Sierra Nevada 6 12 September Granada to Sierra de la Pandera 7 13 September Jaén to Málaga 8 14 September Málaga to Ubrique 9 15 September Córdoba to Córdoba 10 16 September Córdoba to Córdoba Individual time trial 17 September Rest day 11 18 September Alcobendas to Collado Villalba 12 19 September Segovia to Burgos 13 20 September Burgos to Santander 14 21 September Santander to Gijón 15 22 September Gijón to Alto de l'Angliru 23 September Rest day 16 24 September Avilés to León 17 25 September Benavente to Salamanca 18 26 September Salamanca to La Covatilla 19 27 September Béjar to Ávila 20 28 September Ávila to Warner Bros. Park 21 29 September Warner Bros. Park to Madrid (Santiago Bernabéu Stadium) Individual time trial 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)
RankRiderTeamTime1 Aitor GonzálezKelme–Costa Blanca 75h13'52"2 Roberto HerasU.S. Postal 2'14"3 Joseba BelokiONCE–Eroski 3'11"4 Óscar SevillaKelme–Costa Blanca 3'26"5 Iban Mayo 5'42"6 Ángel CaseroTeam Coast 6'33"7 Francesco Casagrande 6'38"8 Félix García Casas 6'46"9 Manuel BeltránTeam Coast 8'29"10 Gilberto Simoni 9'22"11 Haimar Zubeldia 9'49"12 Claus Michael Møller 10'16"13 Fabian Jeker 11'45"14 David PlazaTeam Coast 11'50"15 Guido TrentinCofidis 15'27"16 Rui Sousa 16'36"17 Pablo LastrasiBanesto.com 19'33"18 Tadej Valjavec 23'11"19 Carlos García QuesadaKelme–Costa Blanca 24'01"20 Danilo Di Luca 30'35"21 Mikel ZarrabeitiaONCE–Eroski 31'57"22 Luis PérezTeam Coast 39'42"23 Pietro Caucchioli 43'54"24 Vladimir Miholjević 50'13"25 Christian Vande VeldeU.S. Postal 52'50"
References
External links La Vuelta (Official site in Spanish, English, and French)