Vuelta a España 2000 - 16 L'Angliru Simoni

Vuelta a España 2000 - 16 Oviedo-El Angliru, 168 km Alto del Padrun (3) Alto de Santo Emiliano (2) Alto de la Colladiella (1) Alto del Cordal (1) Alto de L'Angliru (HC) Preview: http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/result... 1 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre Daikin 4.37.34 (36.42 km/h) 2 Jan Hruska (Cze) Vitalicio Seguros 2.19 3 Roberto Heras Hernandez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 2.58 4 Tomas Brozyna (Pol) Banesto 3.11 5 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei-Quick Step 4.27 6 Roberto Laiseka Jaio (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 7 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Jean Delatour 4.44 8 Raimundas Rumsas (Ltu) Fassa Bortolo 5.16 9 Gorka Gerrikagoitia Arrien (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 10 Fernando Escartín (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 5.46 11 Rafael Diaz Justo (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 12 Txema Del Olmo Zendegi (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 5.48 13 Richard Virenque (Fra) Team Polti 6.39 14 Angel Casero Moreno (Spa) Festina Watches 15 Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spa) Mapei-Quick Step 6.52 16 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Cantina Tollo 17 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 7.12 18 Francisco Garcia Rodriguez (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros 19 Santiago Blanco Gil (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros 20 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 7.24 21 Fabian Jeker (Swi) Festina Watches 7.30 22 Santos Gonzalez Capilla (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 7.32 23 Óscar Sevilla Ribera (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 24 Nicola Miceli (Ita) Alessio 7.36 25 Marco Magnani (Ita) Alessio 7.42 26 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 8.29 27 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 8.44 28 Felix Garcia Casas (Spa) Festina Watches 8.58 29 Rolf Huser (Swi) Festina Watches 10.01 30 Oscar Camenzind (Swi) Lampre Daikin 11.20 General after stage 16: 1 Roberto Heras Hernandez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 55.49.53 2 Angel Casero Moreno (Spa) Festina Watches 3.41 3 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei-Quick Step 4.50 4 Raimundas Rumsas (Ltu) Fassa Bortolo 6.37 5 Santos Gonzalez Capilla (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 7.03 6 Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spa) Mapei-Quick Step 9.09 7 Fernando Escartín (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 9.16 8 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) ONCE-Deutsche Bank 9.23 9 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Cantina Tollo 10.36 10 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 10.39 Simoni into form, but Heras clear The break also lost a couple of riders en route, and halfway up the narrow roads of first cat. Colladiella, only Gerrikagoitia, Miceli, Brozyna, Simoni, Hruska and Diaz Justo remained. 25 kilometers remained of the race, and they still had ten minutes. The last climb before Angliru was another first category ascent named El Cordal, and it proved fatal for one of the favourites. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano ran into the invisible wall, and lost minutes on the yellow jersey. He eventually abandoned the race. Apart from the two Kelme riders, it was Fabian Jeker (Festina), Carlos Sastre and his flamenco loving friend Santos Gonzales (ONCE), Raimondas Rumsas (Fassa Bortolo), Pavel Tonkov (Mapei) Roberto Laiseka and Txema del Olmo (Euskatel) who could follow the pace. Tonkov who attacked next, and Heras was the only one who could follow. As the road got steeper and steeper, it was obvious that Heras was much stronger than Tonkov, and also much faster than Simoni, who had jumped away from the others in his break. Simoni was the best climber in the first group, but not equal to Heras today. Still, Simoni's lead was over a kilometre. Casero was struggling at his point, but he is a remarkably strong rider in the mountains. Heras passed Gerrikagoitia and Brochard, and even though he had fulfilled his original goal of putting minutes into Casero, you could see that look in his eyes when he chased after Thomas Brozyna, Jan Hruska and Gilberto Simoni. The spectators were a clear problem for everyone at this point. They were rude and excited and didn't care much for the riders safety. Simoni though, could ride the final kilometer alone, behind the barriers.