THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Casar wins Swiss stage as Kirchen celebrates early
Up-and-coming Frenchman Sandy Casar held off a bunch of big-name sprinters to win the fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland between Viege and Losone on Friday.
Casar, the 24-year-old Fdjeux.com rider who made his name when finishing second in last year's Paris-Nice, held off Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen and Australian Stuart O'Grady after the 166.5km ride. Coming in just behind was Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen, the winner of last year's Tour de France green jersey, and CSC's talented Kiwi Julian Dean - both of whom had battled at the finish on Thursday.
Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, this year and last year's Paris-Nice winner, retained the overall lead after coming in ninth with the main group. The tough Telekom rider still has a six-second lead over Italian Francesco Casagrande (Lampre) while Australian Brad McGee (Fdjeux.com) is still in third at 16secs adrift.
Casar's victory will be all the more satisfying as it came after the peloton had caught him 300 meters from the finish line after he had enjoyed the best part of a 140km breakaway.
Casar and Italian Filippo Simeoni (Domina Vacanze) decided to leave the bunch after just 20km and rode together to build a lead of more than nine minutes over the peloton. The Frenchman even enjoyed a brief spell as virtual race leader as he held a 2:30 advantage over Vinokourov in the overall standings. Vinokourov fell briefly in the Conches Valley but emerged with only scratches.
The front duo's lead sat at 4:50 with 16km to ride, but by then their entente was diminishing with Simeoni failing to take his share of the pulls in the final 8km.
"Fortunately for me he didn't attack with two kilometers still to ride," said Casar, referring to Simeoni. "I wouldn't have been able to follow him. I had cramp, but I didn't want to show it."
When both men were caught 300m before the finish it looked to be all over. However, Casar dug deep and produced a final effort to hold of Fassa Bortolo rider Kirchen - who had already, but prematurely, raised his arms in victory.
