Roberto Heras could finally smile after safely crossing the finish line in Sunday’s 21st stage of the 2005 Vuelta a España.

While the race had all but been decided in last weekend’s epic climbing stage, it wasn’t official until he made it through Sunday’s 136.5km finale, finishing 32nd behind stage winner Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo).

With that, he rode into the history books by winning a record fourth Vuelta crown.

"I don’t know what I will do next year. Right now I want to enjoy this win at the Vuelta, the race that’s given me so much," said the triumphant Heras.

Heras’s easiest win

Indeed, throughout the past three weeks, everyone seemed more interested in why Heras couldn’t ride with such dominance at the Tour de France as he has during the 60th Vuelta.

After two disappointing Tours, when he failed to even pose a threat after riding for three years supporting Lance Armstrong, Heras came to the Vuelta intent on winning back his confidence.

He won two stages and nearly grabbed Saturday’s flat time trial, proof that Heras seems to have regained his footing looking ahead to 2006.

"I think this Vuelta is where I’ve felt the best of the four," he said

With his dramatic stage victory in last weekend’s climbing stage to Pajares, Heras jumped back into the lead with a comfortable 4:30 lead heading into the final week. From there, the fight was all for leftovers and Heras’s Liberty Seguros controlled the race with a firm hand.

Francisco Mancebo (Illes Balears) attacked no less than seven times in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s stages, but could only take home three seconds he won squirting ahead of the main bunch into Avila.

For Heras, his future seems to look beyond Spain, but it might not include the Tour de France. Next year, the attacking Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov is set to join Liberty Seguros.

"I’d like to win a grand tour that’s not in Spain," Heras said, obviously alluding to the Tour and the Giro. "Next year I might race the Giro, then we’ll see what happens after that."

King of the Spanish roads

Within Spain, there’s no doubt that Heras is the king of the roads.

Heras won his first Vuelta in 2000 at the ripe age of 26, the same year he finished fifth overall at the Tour. That was enough for him to get a multimillion-dollar, four-year contract with U.S. Postal Service.

He rode three years in support of Armstrong, but really never shone in the Tour except to help brilliantly in the Pyrenees in 2002. Other years he was either sick or not in top form. By 2004, Liberty Seguros wanted Heras and Armstrong was more than happy to let him go.

Heras always seemed to be able to bounce back for the Vuelta, however. In 2001, he ran into an ambitious Levi Leipheimer, a U.S. Postal teammate who bumped Heras out of the top three in the final-day time trial in Madrid to become the only American to finish on the Vuelta podium.

In 2002, the humiliation repeated itself as Aitor González surpassed Heras in a crushing final-day time trial to relegate him into second place.

In 2003, Heras overcame an outclassed Isidro Nozal in the final days of the Vuelta to secure his second title, giving U.S. Postal two grand-tour victories in one year.

Then last year, he had just enough in the tank to hold off Santi Pérez (later suspended for two years for blood doping) and Francisco Mancebo to claim the third title.

This year, Heras proved he had overcome any difficulties in the Tour with a strong opening time trial and then blowing up the field to win stage six and grab the jersey.

Many thought the race was for second place before Denis Menchov, the winner of the opening time trial, did it again in the complicated race against the clock into Lloret de Mar to snag a 47-second lead.

The Rabobank rider held off Heras without any difficulties through the Pyrenees and the legendary climbing stage to Lagos de Covadonga in stage 14. Heras was ready to throw in the towel.

"After the stage to Covadonga, because that’s when we felt less optimistic about the chances to win," he said. "Even though I felt good, and I hadn’t had a bad moment, not even the night after I had crashed, Menchov was very strong."

That all changed when Heras’s Liberty Seguros boys ganged up on Menchov, catching him off guard in the mountainous stage 15 to Pajares. Liberty sent four riders into early breaks, then had two them wait for Heras to come off the day’s penultimate climb.

A 15-second gap soon turned into two minutes at the base of the final climb and within 30 minutes, the 2005 Vuelta was all but over.

Menchov finished second overall, 4:36 seconds adrift, with Carlos Sastre (CSC) taking third, 4:54 behind.

No surprises except ‘ugly finish’

There were no major surprises in the final stage of the 2005 Vuelta except for the one waiting at the finish line.

The 127 survivors from the original 197 starters were ready for a well-deserved fiesta after concluding the three-week, 21-stage Vuelta that started back in Granada on August 27.

Africa-like heat in the opening week took its toll on the peloton, which saw an abnormally high number of abandons. Later, many of the top stars, including Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini, pulled out ahead of the road world championships set for this week in Madrid.

One rider who stuck with it was Petacchi, who drove home his fifth victory of this Vuelta on the same finishing straight he’ll see next Sunday in the men’s road world championship race.

The final stage followed the script with an easy stage and nothing much happened until the peloton rolled into Madrid for two laps on the world-championship circuit. Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit Agricole) and Luis Pasamontes (Relax Fuenlabrada) were the day’s main protagonists, making a half-hearted breakaway with 30km to go.

Fassa Bortolo did what it had to do to set up "Alejet" for one final charge to the line, but Italian Marco Zanotti (Liquigas) anticipated the bunch on the final curve and tried to surprise the others with a long sprint.

The frenetic finale disrupted Petacchi’s silver train. Forced to finish off the chase himself, he still had no problem holding off eternal second Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) to remind everyone who the favorite will be in a week’s time.

"Like a lot of riders, I came here thinking of abandoning early on, but decided to continue to Madrid and this last win is my reward," Petacchi said.

Petacchi and the rest of the sprinters were dismayed by what they saw of the finishing straight at race speed, however. With about 400 meters to go, the course loops around a big traffic circle on Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana, with a sweeping, 360-degree right turn to bring the finish down the opposite side of the road.

The complicated turn is sure to disrupt the best-laid plans for the top sprinters, something Petacchi was quick to comment on following his win.

"It’s an ugly and difficult finish that you’ll have to be very careful about," Petacchi said. "The last turn is very complicated and it will fundamental for the team to be at the front with two or three riders, where you’ll have to slow down and then start the sprint."

Petacchi later shot down the growing notion that a sprint finish is a foregone conclusion.

"Everyone in the world believes that it’s an easy course, but it’s not," he continued. "It’s a long race, nearly 280km, there will be a lot of attacks, above all on the climbs and it will be very hard. This isn’t like the world’s at Zolder. Here you can’t just follow the wheel."

Stage 21 Results
1. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Fassa Bortolo, 3:34:41
2. Erik Zabel (G), T-Mobile
3. Heinrich Haussler (G), Gerolsteiner
4. Samuel Sanchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi
5. Jimmy Casper (F), Cofidis
6. Gert Steegmans (B), Davitamon-Lotto
7. Bram De Groot (Nl), Rabobank
8. Michael Barry (CAN), Discovery Channel
9. Arnaud Coyot (F), Cofidis
10. René Haselbacher (A), Gerolsteiner
FullResults

Overall- Final
1. Roberto Heras (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 82:22:55
2. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 4:36
3. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 4:54
4. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, 5:58
5. Carlos Garcia Quesada (Sp), ECV, 8:06
6. Ruben Plaza (Sp), ECV, 11:36
7. Oscar Sevilla (Sp), T-Mobile, 13:22
8. Tom Danielson (USA), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team, 16:38
9. Mauricio Ardila (Col), Davitamon-Lotto, 18:15
10. Juan Miguel Mercado (Sp), Quickstep, 18:31
FullResults

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