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June 11, 2005

Bernhard Eisel takes first stage at Tour de Suisse

Eurosport | Boonen beaten in Eisel coup

Eisel takes the sprint win
Photo: cyclingnews.com
It was a different kind of Aussie taking the sprint for Française Des Jeux today, as Austria's Bernhard Eisel took the first stage of the Tour de Suisse, ahead of Quick Step's Tom Boonen and Gerolsteiner's Peter Wrolich.

Normally, you expect a stage win out of FDJ's Australian sprint specialist, Baden Cooke, or fellow Australian Bradley McGee, but on Saturday, Eisel rode a long, almost Petacchi-like leadout to overcome Paolo Bettini, who tried to launch a winning move from 350 meters out, and Boonen, who had a very successful campaign through the spring classics.

After the stage, Eisel thanked Cooke for the win, saying Cooke had told his teammates with 20 kilometers to ride that he wasn't feeling strong enough to sprint for the win.

Davitamon-Lotto's Robbie McEwen chose to not even contest the final sprint.

Tomorrow is a 36-kilometer individual time trial that should provide a measure of Jan Ullrich's fitness with 3 weeks to go to the start of the Tour de France.

Top 10:

1) Bernhard Eisel, Française Des Jeux, 4:00:07
2) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, same time
3) Peter Wrolich, Gerolsteiner, same time
4) Paolo Bettini, Quick Step, same time
5) Bradley McGee, Française Des Jeux, at :03
6) Baden Cooke, Française Des Jeux, same time
7) Fabian Cancellara, Fassa Bortolo, at 0:06
8) Vladimir Gusev, CSC, same time
9) Aurelien Clerc, Phonak, same time
10) Rene Haselbacher, Gerolsteiner, same time

Also:


cyclingnews.com | That's not Baden!

Posted by Frank Steele on June 11, 2005 in Baden Cooke, Bradley McGee, Fabian Cancellara, Jan Ullrich, Robbie McEwen, Tour de Suisse | Permalink

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