This time there were no late climbs or rising finishes. Tuesday’s flat and treacherous arrival into Puertollano in the fourth stage of the Vuelta a España was a flat, fast and furious finish ideal for the pure sprinters.

So it was no surprise that Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) made up for the disappointment of losing Monday with a definitive victory ahead of arch rival Tom Boonen (Quick Step).

The surprises came behind, as scores of GC favorites went down in a half-dozen crashes in the closing kilometers of the otherwise tedious 170.3km fourth stage from Córdoba to Puertollano.

Vuelta 2008, stage 4: Liquigas controlled the pace all day.

Photo: Graham Watson

Damiano Cunego (Lampre) and Andreas Kloden (Astana) were the biggest GC names losing valuable time in the otherwise benign dash across Spain’s parched Castilla y La Mancha region.

Others went down too, including Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxo Bank), but he was able to remount his bike, albeit with torn shorts and a bleeding elbow, and finish in the same group as Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer (both Astana), and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) at 19 seconds back.

That wasn’t the case for Cunego, hoping to make up for a poor showing in the Tour, who lost 2:16, or Kloden, who ceded 4:12.

Judges ruled that the times taken at the line stood because the main crash that split the peloton occurred 100 meters before the three-kilometer “safe zone,” where time lost due to crashes and mechanical problems is neutralized.

Yaroslav Popovych (Silence-Lotto) and Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) opened up a small gap to the main GC favorites by finishing with a group just seven seconds off Bennati’s winning time while Dutch climbing specialist Robert Gesink (Rabobank) lost 42 seconds.

Contador admitted Tuesday’s hot and windy stage was far from easy though it might have looked that way in the race book.

“It looked like it was going to be the easiest ones we’ve done so far, but it was climbing non-stop up and down over hills. Then there was a crash right in front of me in the final three kilometers. I almost fell, but I was able to stay on the bike,” Contador said. “There were some splits in the peloton and there was enormous tension in the peloton.”

Sastre toppled over in a pileup and crossed the line with some minor cuts and scrapes, but was otherwise uninjured despite the wear and tear.

“There was some riders who fell in front of me and I was caught up behind it. There are a lot of teams with various interests there,” Sastre said. “Some want to make the sprint, we were trying to avoid crash. It was nothing grave for us, so luckily we’re still in the race.”

With all the excitement behind them, Quick Step slammed the door shut on solo-attacker José Lopéz Gil (Andalucía-CajaSur) with eight kilometers to go and drove home the sprint so hard they fractured the group already riddled by some nervous crashes.

Two-time world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) led out the sprint and he went so hard that the peloton split up under the pressure. Only eight riders finished with Bennati’s time as the peloton fractured under the combined forces of the speed and crashes.

Vuelta 2008, stage 4: Sastre got battered in a late race crash, but rejoined the group.

Photo: Graham Watson

Bennati made easy work of Boonen to revenge his loss Monday to his Belgian rival and retained the race leader’s jersey. Koldo Fernández (Euskaltel-Euskadi) came through third.

Despite losing the spring and the Tour de France to injuries, the victory counted as Bennati’s sixth on the 2008 season, including three stages in the Giro d’Italia, one in the Tour de Romandie and one in the Eneco Tour.

Another lone shot

Just like Monday’s stage, no one wanted the unsavory prospect of riding in a breakaway across the bleak, sun-baked and windy stage from Andalucía into Spain’s barren Castilla y La Mancha province.

After Jesús Rosendo Prado (Andalucía-CajaSur) gobbled up the day’s first KoM points to assure his grip on the climber’s jersey, teammate José Lopéz Gil took his lone shot for glory with about 10km into the stage.

Vuelta 2008, stage 4: Lopez was away all day and was caught in the last 10 kilometers.

Photo: Graham Watson

Nicknamed the “Malagueta,” he soloed over the day’s second rated climb and no one seemed too interested in chasing him down.

And there he stayed. The peloton gave him just enough leash (about eight minutes) to assure some TV time for the team’s sponsor, yet never enough to believe he could win.

Inevitably, the peloton cranked up the speed in the final hour of racing. With an average speed hovering around 36kph in the first three hours of the course, speeds ramped up considerably as Liquigas and Quick Step combined to snuff his move with less than 10km to go.

Contador wasn’t caught sleeping and sprinted for the third time bonus in the day’s second intermediate sprint to take back two seconds.

“Why not? Everything’s really tight right now in GC and my legs were feeling good,” Contador said. “You never know when those bonuses might help you down the road.”

Just when things were winding up for the sprint, Cunego was caught up in a pileup with about 8km to go and never regained contact with the peloton to lose more than two minutes.

There was another crash at the tail of the peloton with 3km to go on narrow city roads as the peloton flew into Puertollano. Among those going down were Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner), Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and Kloden.

Wednesday’s stage

The 63rd Vuelta a España continues Wednesday with the lone flat individual time trial of this year’s edition that’s well-suited to the specialists.

At 42.5km over mostly flat roads, the time trial heavy hitters should dominate the proceedings.

It will be interesting to see if Stefan Schumacher is anywhere near the winning legs he had during July when he won both of the longer time trials at the Tour de France.

Vuelta 2008, stage 4: Leipheimer had a relatively easy day to rest up before the time trial.

Photo: Graham Watson

Another favorite will be Astana duo of Leipheimer and Kloden. On paper, either one could win and should be counted among the favorites. Leipheimer scored bronze in Beijing in the Olympic Games and should be motivated to win the stage and make a run for the leader’s jersey.

Kloden is a question mark, but both continue to insist publicly they’re committed to helping Contador win the Vuelta, so this could be their best shot at individual glory at the Vuelta.

The time trial will be vital for Spanish favorites Contador (Astana) and Sastre (CSC-Saxo Bank). Neither can afford to lose too much time to each other. Remember last year, Denis Menchov all but won the Vuelta in the long time trial at Zaragoza and only had to ride defensively through the mountains.

“I went to see the course and made two laps on the circuit. It’s completely flat and there’s no mystery to it at all,” Contador said. “It’s for the pure specialist. The only factor is that there could be a lot of wind. I will do the best I can. I’ve worked a lot on improving my time trial, so I am anxious to see how I can do.”

The time trial will be another important test for Valverde. So far, he’s discounted his chances of overall victory in this year’s Vuelta, but a strong time trial could change things considerably.