Stage summary

The streets of Madrid, la Cibeles, and la Puerta de Alcalá will be again the centre of attention all over the world. Last year´s experience is repeated again and the survivors of Vuelta 2001 will obtain the acknowledgement of everyone individually and, at the same time, will fight for those seconds which can deny or give them a place in history. Santos González, the great winner last year in the 38-kilometre-long individual timetrial, traveled at 50,183 kilometres an hour and got a place on the podium. He covered the distance in 45:26. Six seconds later arrived Angel Casero and 1:01 Abraham Olano. The brilliant winner of La Vuelta 2000, Roberto Heras, covered the distance in 1:59. The route is hard but perfect to ride at very high speed. The last important reference, the 61-kilometre-long timetrial of Le Tour, remind us that Armstrong traveled at 48,282 kilometres per hour and used 1:14:16, and Igor González de Galdeano was second arriving 1:24 later than Armstrong; Marcos Serrano culminated a great race and covered the distance in 1:16:41 and Joseba Beloki, who achieved the third position on the final podium in the timetrial, arrived seven seconds later than Serrano. As regards the timetrial, nine of those first twenty riders were from Spain, that easily shows the good level of our riders.