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Salt Lake City, UT - September 20, 2003 - First Endurance athlete "Fast" Freddie Rodriguez demonstrated his sprinting prowess again today by getting on the podium for the second time in three days at the 2003 Vuelta a Espaņa. The American is racing against the best cyclists in the world at the 58th Vuelta a Espaņa stage race September 6-28.
Fred Rodriguez added Optygen to his training/racing program in the winter of 2002 to help him in his endurance building phases before the spring classics. "The main difference (with Optygen) was that I could maintain my endurance heart rate zones. In the past, I always had trouble staying in my target heart rate zones after a couple of weeks of high-intensity training. With Optygen I can sustain my target zones with much more ease." Rodriguez goes on to comment: "As a result, my training has become much more solid and I'm racing better."
STAGE 12 Cuenca - Albacete, 168.8km
The stage from Cuenca - Albacete always puts fear into the riders. The relentless crosswinds are famous for creating big gaps in the field and are usually responsible for big splits in the peleton. This year was no exception. As brutal crosswinds created havoc on the field, US Postal put their big motors on the front and blew the race apart. The front group ended up with 25 riders, including sprinting phenoms Alessandro Petacchi, Fred Rodriguez and Eric Zabel. Rodriguez went for the victory first but was caught before the line by Petacchi with Zabel taking second by less than two feet. Rodriguez wound up third.
Results:
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3.41.49 (45.66 km/h)
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom
3 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Saunier Duval-Vini Caldirola
STAGE 14 Albacete - Valdepeņas, 167.4km
There were a number of small breakaways in today's relatively super-fast 167.4-km stage. The peleton covered 145km in only 3 hours. The main field brought back a small break with 8 km to go to Valdepeņas. Telekom and Fassa Bortolo had their sprinters positioned well at the 1km to go marker. Within the last kilometer, Petacchi was in third place with Zabel and Rodriguez in tow. Rodriguez stayed glued to Petachi's draft all the way to the finish to get second.
Results:
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3.43.16 (44.98 km/h)
2 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Saunier Duval-Vini Caldirola
3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom
About First Endurance™
First Endurance was started by two racing fanatics (a cyclist and a triathlete) with a healthy obsession for sports nutrition. The idea was simple. Give endurance athletes access to formulas that are developed for one specific reason-to maximize endurance performance. First Endurance is committed to using only the highest-quality ingredients and uses latest scientifically validated technological advancements. First Endurance proudly sponsors the Navigators Professional Cycling Team, the US Telemark Team, Fred Rodriguez, Steve Larsen and various other endurance athletes.