THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Contador wins stage, Cunego takes lead in Romandie
Spaniard Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros) won the 144km fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie on Saturday between Chatel St-Denis and Les Paccots ahead of Italians Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre).
In finishing third and picking up bonus time, Cunego took the overall race lead from Santiago Botero (Phonak) as the Lampre rider warms up for the defense of his Giro d'Italia title next month.
Botero crossed sixth on the stage and slipped to second overall, three seconds back, with just Sunday's 20.4km individual time trial in Lausanne remaining. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) is 13 seconds back in third.
"I don't know if I can win because Botero is a time-trial specialist, but I'm going to give it everything and I hope to pull it off," Cunego told Reuters. "If I win it'll be great but if I don't I'll have fought right to the end and shown I'm on form for the Giro d'Italia, which is my big objective of the season."
As for Botero, he wrote off his own chances.
"Everybody is talking about my time-trialing superiority but I haven't ridden a good time trial since I won the world title and so I'm not 100 percent confident," Botero said.
"At the moment, I'm just happy to be up there and have a chance of winning."
So, too, was Contador. "Now I'm fourth overall and so we'll see what happens in the final time-trial stage. I'm going to do everything I can to win the race," said Contador.
Tour de Romandie
Stage 4 results
1. Alberto Contador (Sp), Liberty Seguros, 3:40:10
2. Leonardo Piepoli (I), Saunier Duval, at 0:04
3. Damiano Cunego (I), Lampre, at 0:11
4. Stefano Garzelli (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, same time
5. Miguel Martin Perdiguero (Sp), Phonak, s.t.
6. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, s.t.
7. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, s.t.
8. Marco Fertonani (I), Domina Vacanze, s.t.
9. Aitor Osa (Sp), Illes Balears, s.t.
10. Alexandre Moos (Swi), Phonak, s.t.
Overall
1. Damiano Cunego (I), Lampre, 15:31:30
2. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, at 0:03
3. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 0:13
4. Alberto Contador (Sp), Liberty Seguros, at 0:19
5. Daniel Atienza (Sp), Cofidis, at 0:31
6. Manuel Beltran (Sp), Discovery Channel, at 0:33
7. Marco Fertonani (I), Domina Vacanze , at 0:39
8. Alexandre Moos (Swi), Phonak, at 0:59
9. Aitor Osa (Sp), Illes Balears, at 1:05
10. Alberto Ardila (Col), Davitamon-Lotto, at 1:23
