Volta a Catalunya

While Lance Armstrong rode in for the final victory at the Tour of Switzerland on Thursday, one of his possible Tour de France rivals won the Tour of Catalonia in Spain on the final day of the race. ONCE’s Joseba Beloki, third in last year’s Tour de France, won the last-stage time trial to capture the Catalonia title in Alt de la Rabassa, Spain, on Thursday, beating out teammate Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano and Coast’s Fernando Escartin for the overall victory. Beloki was the only rider to crack the 34 minute barrier on the 13.9km uphill time trial on the Col de Rabassa, with a time of 33:47,

Italian Daniele de Paoli (Mercatone Uno) took a solo win at the seventh stage of the Tour of Catalonia, 1:20 ahead of Spaniards Fernando Escartin (Coast) and Joseba Beloki (ONCE). Beloki’s ONCE teammate Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano retained the leader’s white jersey. On the queen stage of the tour, passing over four passes in the Pyrenees before the finish atop Els Cortals de Encancamp, de Paoli escaped just 29km into the stage along with Andreas Kloden (Telekom), Santiagor Botero (Kelme-Costa Blanca), Roberto Laiseka (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pavel Tonkov (Mercury-Viatel) and Daniel Clavero

Ivan Gotti (Alessio) took the win at stage 6 of the Tour of Catalonia while Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE) took over the race leader’s jersey from teammate Marcos Serrano after the hot, mountainous 184km stage between Les Borges Blaques and Boi Taull in Spain. Gotti was part of a dozen-rider break that escaped 42km into the race. The break would gain up to four minutes as it headed toward the final climb at Boi Taull, with grades of 12 percent. There, Gotti and Spaniard Aitor Kintana (Jazztel) would attack, while behind, the rest of the break began to get caught by the remnants of the

Spain’s Oscar Laguna (Relax-Fuenlabrada), soloed in for victory at the fifth stage of the Tour of Catalonia on Monday, coming in 10 seconds ahead of New Zealander Julian Dean of the U.S. Postal Service. Laguna was part of an eight-man breakaway group, and the Spanish rider escaped 12km from the finish to capture the victory, while ONCE’s Marcus Serrano retained the leader’s white jersey. On the flat, 178km transitional stage from Granada to Vila Seca, the breakaway group attained a maximum lead of more than nine minutes, which made Laguna the virtual leader on the road. However, Serrano’s

Tour de France contender Joseba Beloki (ONCE-Eroski) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Catalonia in Spain on Sunday, while his teammate Marcos Serrano re-took the leader’s white jersey from Santos Gonzalez. Beloki finished in front of Oscar Sevilla (Kelme-Costa Blanca) and Miguel Angel Martin on stage 4, a short, nervous and hilly trip over second- and third-category climbs around Barcelona. Sevilla was the instigator of an attack on the final climb, 15km from the finish, and was followed only by Beloki. The two crested the climb with about a 30 second lead, but from that point, Beloki

World champion Romans Vainsteins (Domo-Farm Frites) won the third stage of the Tour of Catalonia in a sprint finish at the end of a 148.6km day between Blanes and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat on Saturday, while ONCE’s Santos Gonzalez took the leader’s white jersey from teammate Marcos Serrano. Finishing 22nd on the stage, Gonzalez was credited with the same overall time as Serrano at the end of the day, but took the race lead by virtue of his standing in the overall points classification. Meanwhile, Spaniards Roberto Heras (U.S. Postal Service) and José Maria Jimenez (iBanesto.com) were caught

Domo-Farm Frites’ Max Van Heeswijk won the second stage of the Tour of Catalonia in Spain, a 173.5km day ending in a sprint finish in Blanes on Friday. ONCE’s Marcos Serrano retained the race leader’s jersey. Van Heeswijk beat out Telekom’s Danilo Hondo, winner of two stages at this year’s Giro d’Italia, with Sven Teutenberg (Festina) in third, and the rest of the peloton, including Serrano, just behind. Friday’s transitional stage saw a long breakaway from Fabio Roscioli (Jazztel), who attacked just after the start and gained almost 10 minutes on the peloton, with Simone Masciarelli

The ONCE team of Joseba Beloki and Jorg Jaksche took command on day 1 of the Tour of Catalonia on Thursday, winning the stage 1 team time trial and putting Spaniard Marcos Serrano into the leader’s white jersey. Beloki and Jaksche put themselves into good position for the overall, as their ONCE team finished the difficult 20.5km stage around Sabadell 47 seconds ahead of the Festina team of Angel Casero and 53 seconds ahead of Kelme and Oscar Sevilla. Among the other favorites, iBanesto.com’s Jose-Maria Jimenez lost 58 seconds, Telekom’s Andreas Kloden 1:08, and the Crédit Agricole squad of