Italian super sprinter Alessandro Petacchi won the final stage of the Tour of the Valencia as Spain's Ruben Plaza completed the overall victory.

The 33-year-old Milram speedster beat compatriots Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) and Francesco Chicchi to the line at the end of the 149.4km trek around Valencia.

It was Petacchi's fifth win of the season.

Plaza's Benfica team managed to ensure that he maintained his five second advantage on GC over stage three winner Manuel Vazquez.

STAGE FOUR

Former Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro fell victim to a determined chasing peloton before Italian Lorenzetto Mirco took out a well-deserved sprint win at the Tour of the Valencia.

Mirco, of Lampre, held off fellow Spaniard Xavier Florencio, of Bouygues Telecom, and Italian Filippo Pozzato of Liquigas after 4hr 15min of racing over 175.6 km from Naquera to Naquera.

Spaniard Ruben Plaza retained the race leader's jersey in domineering fashion, his Benfica team chasing down a two-man breakaway. Spaniard Antonio Piedra and Lucas Euser at one point led by over seven minutes, making the American the virtual race leader.

Benfica's turn of pace caught the front pair at the 12km to go mark, but also left Pereiro trailing further back, the Spaniard eventually finishing 106th at over two minutes adrift of the peloton.

In the final few kilometres Canadien Ryder Hesjedal survived a spectacular crash before Mirco claimed the honours at the finish.

Saturday's final stage is a 149.4km ride beginning and finishing in Valencia.

STAGE THREE

Manuel Vazquez won a bizarre third stage of the Volta a Valenciana after the peloton accidentally broke off onto a public highway in the final six kilometres.

Benfica rider Ruben Plaza took the overall lead from José Iván Gutiérrez, as the peloton was split in half after one group incorrectly trailed a motorcycle official onto a four-lane highway full of rush-hour traffic with about five kilometres left to ride.

Already with a 20-second lead after breaking away from the main bunch earlier in the stage, Vazquez and Plaza took advantage of the confusion to claim their respective prizes after 166.5-km of riding a circuit around the city of Ibi, while two pelotons rode parallel on two different roads.

Race favourite Alberto Contador was part of the 15-man group that split off from the main bunch before taking an exit to rejoin the rest of the peloton with two kilometres left to ride.

Gutierrez ended up losing 16 seconds on the new race leader and stage victor after finishing with the main bunch 21 seconds after the two men, but being awarded with a five-second bonus by race officials because of the confusion.

"What happened is a real pity," said Guitierrez's Caisse d'Epargne sport director Neil Stephens. "Races are sometimes like that and this is not the first time or the last time that something like this happens."

"I feel really sorry for our riders because they were realizing such an extraordinary effort to win the race. We were real close to win it and now we have probably lost it all."

Friday's penultimate stage takes the peloton 175.6-km at Naquera,

STAGE TWO

Veteran German sprint specialist Erik Zabel won the 178 kilometres second stage of the Tour of Valencia the from Alzira to Xativa.

Despite the 37-year-old's success, Spain's Jose Ivan Gutierrez retained the overall leader's yellow jersey - he leads compatriot Ruben Plaza by four seconds while the previous two Tour de France champions Alberto Contador and Oscare Pereiro are nine seconds and 1min 56sec off the pace respectively.

Zabel, who began riding in the peloton back in 1992, beat home Mirco Lorenzetto of Italy and Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin in the sprint finish.

"That was a very challenging final sprint, since it went uphill to the finish line and was pretty narrow," admitted Zabel, whose admission that he used the blood booster EPO should see him stripped of the first of his six successive Tour de France green jerseys back in 1996.

"So I am very happy with my first season victory. As a team we worked very well today, especially in the last 20 km, when we forced the tempo and set up the mass sprint," added Zabel, who has hinted that this may well be his last in the saddle.

Another sprint ace Alessandro Petacchi of Italy failed to show the form he did last week in winning three of the five stages in the Road to the Sun race as he could finish only 42nd.

STAGE ONE

Former Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro failed his first stage exams on the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana as Spanish compatriot and teammate Ivan Gutierrez took out the victory.

Gutierrez dominated a 24-man breakaway in a sprint finish which gave him the winner's jersey, and some relief after an embarrassing 'win' at the Tour of the Mediterranean.

Ruben Plaza finished second after the 157km hilly ride from Sagunto to Port de Sagunto, with Bouygues Telecom's top sprinter Xavier Florencio finishing in a disappointing third.

Pereiro, crowned the 2006 yellow jersey winner last year after American Floyd Landis was finally confirmed as being disqualified for doping at the 2006 Tour de France, finished nearly two minutes in arrears.

Current Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, of Astana, instigated a decisive breakaway on the category one Col du Garbi at 111km, finally remaining in contention for overall victory in the five-day race after finishing just 9secs behind Gutierrez.

The Spaniard meanwhile was delighted with his first win of the season - after missing out in embarrassing fashion at the Tour of the Med when he raised his arms in triumph at the finish only to be told he had been a lap too early.

"This time I really won," said Gutierrez, a former three-time Spanish time trial champion.

"I am very happy not only for the stage win but also because I am in a good position now for the final win even if I know that some other 20 riders are exactly in the same position."

Eurosport / AFP