TOUR OF SPAIN CYCLISTS HIT BY FOOD POISONING

Cycling

A bout of food poisoning turned yesterday's 264km sixth stage of the Tour of Spain from Orense to Zamora into a stop-start affair. The ONCE, Kelme, Banesto, Telekom, Castellblanch and Artiach teams were forced to make frequent stops, interrupting the progress of the peloton every 14 kilometres. The Italian Nicola Minali won the difficult mountain stage, which included a multi-rider crash before the finish that sent the Spaniard Jose Santamaria to hospital with a head injury. Laurent Jalabert of France managed to keep the overall lead despite his food poisoning.

TOUR OF SPAIN Sixth stage (264km, Orense to Zamora): 1 N Minali (It) Gewiss-Ballan 7hr 27sec; 2 M Wust (Ger) Castellblanch; 3 A Baffi (It) Mapei-GB; 4 J Blijlevens (Neth) TVM-Verzekeringen; 5 D Abdoujaparov (Uzbek) Novell Software; 6 G Pianegonda (It) Polti; 7 L Jalabert (Fr) ONCE; 8 M Bartoli (It) Mercatone Uno-Saeco; 9 A Saitov (Rus); 10 S Biasci (It) Mercatone Uno-Saeco all same time. Overall standings: 1 Jalabert 31hr 3min 18sec; 2 A Olano (Sp) Mapei-GB +29sec; 3 Pianegonda +38; 4 M Mauri (Sp) ONCE +51; 5 O Rodrigues (Port) Artiach +1min 5sec; 6 J Bruyneel (Bel) ONCE s/t; 7 Bartoli +1:13; 8 B Rijs (Den) Gewiss-Ballan +1:18; 9 R Virenque (Fr) Festina-Lotus +1:31; 10 P Meinert (Den) TVM-Verzekeringen +1:46.