Jalabert escapes crash in final sprint;
Indurain, Dufaux, Julich lose time
By Andrew Hood

Team ONCE did its job controlling Tuesday's fourth stage of the Vuelta Espana, but when there's a crash in the middle of a field sprint, teams can only hope their leaders aren't among the maimed.

Scores of riders went down hard on rain-slicked roads in the final two kilometers of the 166.5-kilometer (103-mile) flat stage from Albacete to Murcia. Defending champion Laurent Jalabert (ONCE) was ahead of the spill and finished fifth to retain the overall lead for the second day.

Spain's Miguel Indurain (Banesto) wasn't so lucky.

On the final turn, a pair of crashes took out more than 30 riders. Indurain, although he wasn't injured, lost another 37 seconds to Jalabert and fell from 16th to 28th at 1:06 behind.

"I always try to stay ahead in the sprints," Indurain said after the race. "The racers in the front always have a better chance of not being involved in a crash."

It was disaster number two in this year's Vuelta. In Monday's stage, pre-race favorites Tony Rominger (Mapei) and Fernando Escartin (Kelme) lost more than seven minutes to the race leaders when ONCE attacked.

In Tuesday's stage, several riders lost more time, including:

* American Bobby Julich (Motorola), who fell from seventh overall to 18th at 54 seconds back.
* Jeroen Blijlevens (TVM), who fell from 13th to 27th at 1:01.
* Festina's Laurent Dufaux, who finished fourth in the Tour de France, fell from 8th to 17th at 51 seconds back.
* AKI'S Dimtiri Konyshev, who was seriously injured in the crash, fell from 6th to 53rd overall at 2:57 back.

Again, Jalabert's good fortune is everyone else's bad luck.

Mapei's Tom Steels was oblivious to what was happening behind him. The Belgian rider powered ahead of a surging Marcel Wust (MX) to win his first career Vuelta stage after finishing second in the Tour's opening stage Saturday to Biagio Conte (Scrigno).

"I was a bit unlucky in the first sprint. I came on strong in the final 100 meters and I'm glad I won," said Steels, a third-year pro who turned 25 this week.

The Belgian timed his sprint perfectly, coming from five riders back to overtake Giovanni Lombardi (Polti), who finished fourth, and Spain's Asier Guenetxea (Euskadi), who crossed the line third.

Second-place Wust may have won if the finish line had been another 10 meters away. He elbowed his way past Guenetxea on his left and nearly caught Steels. Not so lucky were nine riders who suffered more serious injuries, with the worst endured by Euskadi team captain David Garcia and Polti's Inigo Chaurreau. Seven others were injured, but all finished the race. Whether they start tomorrow remains to be seen.

For Steels, Tuesday's stage win is a consolation prize for the Mapei team, which missed ONCE's attack in Monday's stage and finished more than seven minutes behind.

With Mapei team captain and three-time Vuelta champion Tony Rominger out of the hunt for overall, Steels said the team will focus on stage wins.

"We lost our chance for the overall and we were looking at how we were going to ride today. We had hoped for a victory today and luckily I won today," said Steels, a strong sprinter who already has 10 wins in his young career.

Even Rominger, who won the Vuelta three years straight during 1992-94, says he will go for stage wins and may even try to win a field sprint.

"For me, the Vuelta is over. But coming in here I knew I was very tired and wouldn't be at my best form," Rominger said following Monday's stage, when ONCE attacked and blew apart the field, leaving more than 100 riders of the peloton back more than seven minutes.

"I will go for stage wins. I want to try to win a field sprint. I have never won a field sprint and I would like to do this once," Rominger said.

Light rains started to fall just as the peloton roared into Murcia, an historic city with a beautiful cathedral in the center of town just 20 kilometers from the Mediterranean Coast.

As the peloton slipped into the narrow streets of downtown Murcia, two riders went down simultaneously in different parts of the pack. The first spill, just behind the attacking sprinters, only took out a few. The second rider went down in a tight bunch and at least 20 riders went sprawling to the ground.

After scrambling back on their bikes, the first group of riders came across the line 30 seconds back. The second was 50 seconds back, and the last stragglers were more than a minute back.

All eyes--all Spanish eyes, at least--were on Indurain. Where was "el rey," as the Spanish affectionately call their beloved Indurain? Were Indurain and his chances to challenge Jalabert lost on the slick roads of Murcia?

Unfortunately for many, particularly Spanish journalists who are milking Indurain's first Vuelta appearance since 1991, the local hero survived unharmed but crossed the line in 91st, 37 seconds back.

Typically, in a crash in the final sprint, even a fallen rider who walks his bike across the line is awarded the same time as the finishers. But because the crash happened beyond the final kilometer, race judges ruled that the time differences would stand.

Action was limited earlier in the stage. There were no surprise attacks in Tuesday's flat course and no major breaks, with Jalabert's ONCE team keeping a tight reign on the action.

The racers covered 37 kilometers in the first hour, a much slower pace than Monday's blistering tempo when Jalabert won with an average speed of 49.257 kilometers per hour.

The record speed for a Vuelta stage is 49.417 kph held by Johan Bruyneel of Belgium from the sixth stage of the 1993 Vuelta. Tuesday's stage finished with an average speed of just over 40 kph.

Several riders tried to break in during the closing 50 kilometers, including Italy's Gianni Bugno. The mercurial Bugno--who's already seen his best days when he won the 1990 Giro d'Italia and finished on the Tour de France podium in 1991 and 1992--led out with four other riders, but they were quickly sucked up by the peloton.

Spain's Eleuterio Anguita (MX) made a push over the final 20 kilometers and held a 20-second lead for about five kilometers before he was absorbed. Italy's Marco Di Renzo made a short run before the peloton came in together to Murcia for the final sprint.

At the 129-kilometer mark, ONCE team manager Pablo Anton pulled off the road. The team placed flowers on the spot where ONCE rider Mariano Rojas was killed on a training ride in June of this year. The 23-year-old Rojas who was Jalabert's roommate hailed from the nearby town of Cieza.

Jalabert remains ahead of Italy's Fabio Baldato (MG) by just four seconds. Baldato shaved one second off Jalabert's lead on time bonuses during points sprints in the stage.

Lombardi, Jurgen Werner (Telekom), and Steffen Wesemann (Telekom) round out the top five. Julich (Motorola) retained the climber's jersey. He'll keep it through tomorrow, because, like today, there are no climbing points in Wednesday's stage.

The 22-stage Vuelta continues Wednesday with an easy spin along the Mediterranean Coast to the port city of Almeria, 208 kilometers (128.96 miles) from Murcia.

Stage 4 results

Andrew Hood is in Spain covering the Vuelta for Outside Online.