59th Vuelta a España

September 5

Stage 2: León-Burgos /207km.

At the end of the 2004 Vuelta d'Espana's longest stage, Alessandro Petacchi

powered to victory on his Pinarello Dogma FP in Burgos, Spain for his 18th win of the season. His favorite leadout man Guido Trenti set up Ale-Jet perfectly for the win, despite Trenti shredded shorts and bloddy right thigh from an earlier crash.



"Despite the win today, it was a very difficult for me," said Petacchi at the finish in Burgos. "First the crashes I was involved in, then my teammates Trenti and Ongarato crashed. I suffered the whole day with the rhythm of the race. In Spain the Vuelta always starts very hard and I have only three days of racing in my legs since the Tour. And I want to underline the work done by Guido Trenti to lead me out today. Although he suffered a lot of injury to his right side, he rode such a strong lead out that I didn't think I'd get past him. I'm extremely happy that Guido Trenti has started again this way after his bad crash before the Giro."



Stage 2 / Results

1. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA) Fassa Bortolo / 5h02'05" (41.11 km/hr. avg.)

2 Erik Zabel (GER) T-Mobile Team

3 Oscar Freire (SPA) Rabobank