After claiming a stunning third Tour de France stage win in five days, Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen warned his shattered rivals that there is plenty of speed left in his legs. And the real bad news for Belgian Tom Boonen, Italian Daniele Bennati, Norwegian Thor Hushovd and Spaniard Oscar Freire is that he plans to use that speed again as soon as possible.

But wait, there’s more from the Queenslander whose three-length victory over a frustrated Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) and Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) was clocked in an average stage speed of 45.309 kph for the 189km ride from Lisieux to Vitré.

McEwen even predicted he would win Friday’s stage 6 to extend his tally of Tour stage wins to 11 — and equal his total in the Giro d’Italia.

The Aussie sprinter said that for months he has been keeping a mental dossier on his rivals — on their strengths and weaknesses, storing them in his mental hard drive for use in the Tour.

“It may seem like I have an obsessive-compulsive disorder but at the Giro I won three stages. I won stages 2, 4 and 6,” said McEwen who celebrated his win as he crossed the finish with a mock running gesture taken from the movie “Dumb and Dumber.”

“I said at the Giro: ‘Right, that’s 11 Giro stages I have won. Now if I need to win 11 stages in the Tour, so I have to win three here to keep the balance.

“I rang my wife [Angelique] today and said I am going to win today. I told her I have won stages 2 and 4. I don’t make predictions, but it just sounded right [to win stage 6 as well].

“Now I am going to try and get over that compulsive disorder and win another stage and try and be normal.”

A study of minds
Those words, together with the fact that McEwen has case-study analysis on each of his rivals in his mind, will not augur well for anyone hoping to get the jump on the Davitamon-Lotto rider.

“I do watch my rivals until the moment I pass them. But also when I am at home and there is a race on TV, I will watch it and store everything into my memory bank,” he said.

“So then I will have a feeling of what guys are going to do and in the set-up before the sprint in the last kilometer: from seeing who has help, who hasn’t, who is pulling the sprint, to how far [out] is their last man beginning, so I have got all the information.

“I don’t think about it any more. I just concentrate on the tactic for the finish and go with it, but I’m prepared to change it at any second in case someone comes up with a surprise.”

By winning as emphatically as he did Friday, McEwen proved that the five-length distance he got on his rivals to claim his second win in stage 4 at St. Quentin on Wednesday was not by chance.

The result also saw McEwen extend his lead in the green-jersey competition. He has 157 points to the 147 of Boonen, whose one consolation today was to retain the yellow jersey.

Heading into Saturday’s 52km stage 7 time trial from St. Grégoire to Rennes, Boonen leads by 12 seconds over McEwen who moved up to second place due to his win.

Third at 21 seconds is another Australian, Michael Rogers (T-Mobile), followed by Spain’s Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and American George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) at 25 seconds.

Great Gert … what a find
As happy as McEwen was today, he was as appreciative of the effort of his new lead-out man Gert Steegmans, who has replaced Fred Rodriguez, who crashed out on stage 3. The Australian was perfectly led out by Steegmans, who placed ninth and raised his arms in joy well before McEwen produced his bizarre but entertaining victory salute.

Unlike on stage 5 when Steegmans went too early — costing McEwen a win; the Belgian today followed McEwen’s instructions to the letter.

“Yesterday he made a mistake but he really made up for it today,” said McEwen, who later urged Steegmans to remain with Davitamon-Lotto, despite being hotly sought by other squads.

“I told him not to go one meter before the 450-meter mark, to make sure which side opens up and at 400 meters just go.

“I really had to jump to go with him. And If I had to jump to get on him, I knew nobody else could go. It was like getting on my own personal TGV [express train]. I am the only one with a ticket and all I have to do is get off at my station.”

Petacchi who?
McEwen said: “I don’t know if it is the form of my life, but it is pretty good,” but he did reject the suggestion that one missing name he needed to beat was Alessandro Petacchi.

Of the Italian who missed the Tour after breaking a kneecap in the three-week Giro d’Italia, which finished in early June, McEwen said: “I have proved I can beat him at the Giro. It would change the nature of the sprint [if he were here]; but the quality of the field here is very high. But I don’t think anyone could have beaten me in the last two sprints I have won.”

Asked if he would now work on strategizing to defend the green jersey he was won outright in 2002 as the first Australian to do so, and again in 2004, McEwen said: “What I have been doing so far is my strategy to win the green jersey. I have said all along you go out and win stages and then you get points. I have not gone for one intermediate sprint. But maybe it is time to start thinking about that.”

Caution to the wind
Saying that, don’t expect to see McEwen in brazen breakaways like the one Boonen and Hushovd found themselves in today, on a stage that saw cross-head and head winds blow.

After a flurry of early breaks under overcast and humid conditions that dropped light rain, rather than the downpour feared, two French riders escaped – Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux) and Stéphane Augé (Cofidis). Their move after 45km saw 14 riders join them after 49km: Boonen, Hushovd and German top-10 overall contender Patrik Sinkewitz (T-Mobile). The other five were Florent Brard (Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears), Christian Knees (Milram), Iker Camano (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pavel Padrnos (Discovery Channel), Sylvain Calzati (AG2R), Peter Wrolich (Gerolsteiner), Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank), Axel Merckx (Phonak), Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux), Magnus Bäckstedt (Liquigas), Manuel Quinzato (Liquigas), Anthony Geslin (Bouygues Télécom) and Laurent Lefèvre (Bouygues Télécom).

The break, because of its size and complement of sprint stars in Boonen and Hushovd and overall rider Sinkewitz, was never going to stay away. It got a lead of up to 1:10 at the 59km mark at Fontenay-sur-Orne, but then came under siege from a chasing peloton that was first led by McEwen’s Davitamon-Lotto team, followed by CSC — which was not represented in the break — and then Lampre (for Bennati).

McEwen said he never feared the move, and suspected Boonen was only in it to provide his Quick Step-Innergetic teammates some respite after all the work they had done in recent days in defending his yellow jersey and trying to get him across the line first.

Bäckstedt broke the stalemate by attacking at the 70km mark at St. Brice-sous-Rânes, and soon Brard and Geslin came across; leaving in their wake Boonen’s group to be caught after 80km, shortly before the feed zone at Bagnôles de l’Orne.

The leading trio was granted a stay of execution and rode away to a maximum lead of 5:15 at 104km in La Baroche-Gondouin, shortly after the Tour entered the Mayenne region. After that, their advantage dropped with merciless timing. Try as they did to bring home a winning break, they were caught 4km out from the Vitré finish.

Top 10
1. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto
2. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, same time
3. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, s.t.
4. Bernhard Eisel (A), Française des Jeux, s.t.
5. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, s.t.
6. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, s.t.
7. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, s.t.
8. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, s.t.
9. Gert Steegmans (B), Davitamon-Lotto, s.t.
10. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, s.t.

Overall
1. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic
2. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, at 0:12
3. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 0:21
4. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, at 0:25
5. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, s.t.
6. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, at 0:27
7. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, at 0:35
8. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, at 0:36
9. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, at 0:3710. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), T-Mobile, s.t.

Full results

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