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13.08.2007/ Damiano Cunego took the fourth stage of the Tour
of Germany. Overall race leader Jens Voigt was about to crack but managed to defend his yellow jersey.
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| Damiano Cunego during the Tour de Suisse (picture: Heinz Zwicky) |
Jens Voigt defended his yellow jersey tooth and nail in the Deutschland
Tour when an attack towards the end of the 184-kilometre fourth stage threatened the German's overall lead. But with Chris
Anker Sørensen's help, the loss to the three breakaways was successfully limited to just a few seconds, so the overall lead
remains with the Team-CSC rider.
Six riders broke away on the last climb with 15 kilometres to go. Among them was the
eventual winner of the stage, Damiano Cunego (Lampre), who finished with Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) and David Lopez (Caisse
d'Epargne). These three managed to shake off Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) while the sixth
man in the breakaway, Rigoberto Uran (Unibet), was unlucky and took a fall.
Behind the breakaways, Jens Voigt had to
work really hard to avoid losing too much time on the climb itself and then also on the downward slope and the flat section
into the finish. Fortunately Chris Anker Sørensen came up through a field of about 30 riders at the end, so the young Dane
was able to help his team captain the last 3–4 kilometres to the finish. The two CSC-riders' work together, and that
of one or two other riders, also meant that Leipheimer and Gesink were overtaken.
"We managed to keep the jersey, but
of course it took some effort. The climb was just a little too steep for me to keep up with the leaders, so I had to find
my own maximum tempo,” explained Voigt after the stage.
In normal circumstances, Voigt would probably have received
help from Andy Schleck in a finish like this, but the young Luxemburger was taken ill during the night and although he lined
up for the start of the stage, he was soon forced to accept that he would not be able to complete the stage. Fabian Cancellara
also abandoned the race after his hard-working performance in both the second and third stages, so that he can prepare for
the Vattenfall Cyclassics on Sunday.
On the other hand, young Chris Anker Sørensen won a couple of nice extra “prizes”
as a result of his fine piece of work. For he is now in overall second place and can also wear the white jersey in the next
stage, taking over as best young rider from Andy Schleck.
"Both of them did really well, but it was incredibly tough.
The climb was only listed as category two, but it was much harder than the two category one climbs yesterday. And on top of
that it came after an extremely hard-ridden stage. The first 70 kilometres was a madly fast cycle race. The average speed
was 50 km/h, and our riders were in there all the time, so they all deserve praise. It was a shame about Andy. He threw up
and had stomach ache yesterday, so he was simply not up to it today. We don't know exactly what is wrong with him, but he'll
probably be all right in a day or two," said CSC sports director, Kim Andersen.
T-Mobile's Linus Gerdemann came in with the Voigt group and said: "On the
last mountain I felt fine, but then at the top I really felt the affect of being ill these past few days."
Rabobank's young gun Robert Gesink showed his class today. Rabobank sports director Frans Maasen said: "With
a little bit more experience, Robert would have managed to stay ahead, but Rebellin and Cunego would have been fierce competitors
in the sprint for the stage victory. He did learn a lot today, and it is great for us to see that he can climb very well.
Robert is a special rider. I am already looking forward to tomorrow, also because he has been talking about it for quite some
time now."
Stage 3
Sunday's stage 3 was won by Erik Zabel (Milram). Erik Zabel eventually won the sprint sovereignly
before José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d’Epargne) and Bradley McGee (FDJ). With his victory Milram's pro took over the best
sprinter's red jersey. “It is a good feeling,” Zabel smiled. “In the finale I tried to find the right way
and was in front the last 200 meters.”
Results
Stage 3
1 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
4.49.25 (37.69 km/h)
2 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
3 Bradley Mcgee (Aus) Française des Jeux
4 Manuele Mori (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
5 Patrick Calcagni (Sui) Liquigas
6 René Weissinger (Ger) Team Volksbank
7 Björn Leukemans (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
8 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) T-Mobile Team
9 René Mandri (Est) AG2r Prévoyance
10 Martin Elmiger (Sui) AG2r Prévoyance
Stage 4
1
Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
4.28.06 (41.134 km/h)
2 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
3 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
4 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
0.05
5 Patrick Calcagni (Sui) Liquigas
6 Peter Velits (Svk) Team Wiesenhof Felt
7 Andrea Tonti (Ita) Quickstep-Innergetic
8 Florian Stalder (Sui) Team Volksbank
9 Manuele Mori (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
10 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
General Classification after stage 4:
1 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC
14.33.31
2 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC
0.01
3 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
0.27
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
5 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
6 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
0.45
7 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC
8 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
0.49
9 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
0.52
10 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner
0.55
Related stories:
Race reports
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