Aussie sprinter Robbie McEwen zipped past the field at the finish in Saint Quentin on Wednesday to take his second win in the 2006 Tour de France.
Marking his 10th career win at the Tour, the Davitamon-Lotto cyclist said, “This one is for Freddy Rodriguez.” The American — and the team's lead-out specialist — crashed out in Tuesday's stage and suffered a concussion. Gert Steegmans fulfilled the role of McEwen's lead-out man.
Remarkably, Norwegian Thor Hushovd found himself on the pavement again, this time falling as he bumped a passing cyclist near the finish line. (Actually it was Thor Hushovd's teammate Julian Dean who crashed in the sprint; Hushovd was riding alongside him. In the accident, Hushovd veered toward Bernhard Eisel, squeezing him toward the barriers. The race judges didn't like that move and demoted Hushovd to a 148th-place finish in the stage.) The prologue winner remained in 4th place overall.
As usual in these flat stages, a breakaway formed after about 12 miles and led until the final mile of the 128-mile race from Huy to Saint Quentin. The highest placed rider in the five-man group was Egoi Martinez, a Spanish rider on the Discovery team.
Although overall leader Tom Boonen's QuickStep team controlled the peloton and didn't let Martinez get too far in front, “He was feeling good, so he decided to keep going,” said Discovery team boss Johan Bruyneel.
Martinez's gambit paid off; although he was swallowed by the peloton in the final kilometers, the time bonuses he gained in intermediate sprints on the road gave him enough seconds to propel him into 5th place overall, 10 seconds behind Boonen. He started the day in 22nd place, 28 seconds behind the leader.
Martinez also won the distinction of being named the day's most combative cyclist.
Another Discovery cyclist, American George Hincapie, remained in 3rd place overall, 5 seconds behind the leader as Paolo Savoldelli dropped slightly to 7th at 15 seconds out.
The Top 10 overall are:
1. Tom Boonen (Belgium) QuickStep
2. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 1 second behind
3. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 5 seconds
4. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, 7 seconds
5. Egoi Martinez (Sp) Discovery, 10 seconds,
6. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon, 12 seconds,
7. Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery, 15 seconds
8. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre, 15 seconds
9. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak, 16 seconds
10. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne,17 seconds
The standings for the remaining 7 American cyclists:
3. George Hincapie (Discovery), 5 seconds behind
9. Floyd Landis (Phonak), 16 seconds behind
17. David Zabriskie (CSC), 23 seconds
22. Bobby Julich (CSC), 25 seconds
25. Christian Vandevelde (CSC), 28 seconds
27. Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), 28 seconds
143. Chris Horner, (Davitamon-Lotto), 8 minutes, 22 seconds
Wednesday's stage winner McEwen also holds the green points jersey, Jerome Pineau (France) of Bouygues Telecom holds the polka dot mountain jersey, and Marcus Fothen (Germany) of Gerolsteiner holds the best young rider's jersey.
More results and updates at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
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