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June 14, 2005
McEwen takes mass sprint at Tour de Suisse
VeloNews.co | McEwen wins stage at Swiss Tour
With Alessandro Petacchi skipping this year's Tour de France, it looks like Robbie McEwen will be the fast man to beat during the Tour's first week.Today, he took a big field sprint in Bad Zurzach (my favorite Spiderman villain!) at the Tour of Switzerland, following 3 wins in a short stay at the Giro d'Italia last month. McEwen briefly wore the leader's maglia rosa, but authorities confiscated a hyperbaric tent from his Davitamon-Lotto team, so Italy was a mixed bag.
McEwen has managed to maintain a high level of fitness since winter, when he won a number of summer races in the southern hemisphere, including 3 stages at the Tour Down Under (where beer does flow and men chunder). On the other hand, he skipped a number of classics with flu, and left the Giro before the hardest stages, so he may be tapering perfectly to the Tour.
Jan Ullrich holds the overall lead, and is likely to keep it through tomorrow at least, as tomorrow's stage is another moderate profile. Thursday, the mountains.
Top 10:
1) Robbie McEwen, Davitamon-Lotto, 4:42:40
2) Daniele Colli, Liquigas-Bianchi, same time
3) Aurelien Clerc, Phonak Hearing Systems, same time
4) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, same time
5) Sebastien Hinault, Credit Agricole, same time
6) Baden Cooke, Française Des Jeux, same time
7) Rene Haselbacher, Gerolsteiner, same time
8) Fabian Wegmann, Gerolsteiner, same time
9) David Loosli, Lampre-Caffita, same time
10) Roger Hammond, Discovery Channel, same time
Also:
Eurosport.com | Tour de Suisse Stage 4 Live Comments
cyclingnews.com | Tour de Suisse Stage 4 results
Posted by Frank Steele on June 14, 2005 in Baden Cooke, Jan Ullrich, Robbie McEwen, Tom Boonen, Top Stories, Tour de Suisse | Permalink