Borut Bozic wins fifth stage as Damiano Cunego retains his overall lead in 2011 Tour de Suisse
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling team’s Borut Bozic won the uphill sprint of the fifth stage of 2011 Tour de Suisse on Wednesday, June 15. The Italian rider, Damiano Cunego, retained his overall standing.
The race started in Huttwil and ended in Tobel-Tagerschen. The 30-year-old Slovenian took a total of 4 hours, 44 minutes and 48 seconds to cover the distance of 204.2 kilometres.
Oscar Freire Gomez of Rabobank Cycling was in second spot, while the stage three winner, Peter Sagan of Liquigas-Cannondale, finished third.
Rubens Bertogliati of the Type-1 team was also in good form, but he failed to catch the 46 cyclists and grabbed the 47th spot with a difference of 9 seconds.
Bozic was very happy after winning the stage and said, "I've had a very difficult last six months, no wins and never really feeling good on the bike. Today I thought it wasn't my day, either, but with 50 metres to go I got on Freire's back wheel, then got
past him at the last possible moment."
Previously, Bozic won seventh stage of Tour of Britain and also won the first and second stage of Etoile de Besseges in 2010.
A four-man breakaway formed early in the stage, which included Manuele Boaro of Saxo Bank Sungard, Alessandro Bazzana of Team Type 1-Sanofi Aventis, Jan Barta of NetApp and Daniel Sesma of Euskaltel-Euskadi.
After 30 kilometres, all four riders gained a lead of 10 minutes over the peloton. Liquigas-Cannondale, Team Sky and Omega Pharma-Lotto teams tried their best to make a gap, but failed to gain a lead.
In the final kilometres, Tom Boonen of Quick Step made a solo move, but he was caught by the peloton. Borut team-mate, Marco Marcato, attacked but ended up claiming the sixth spot.
Bozic proved too fast for the others riders and crossed the finish-line to open his account with a win in 2011.
Bozic said, "You need luck and circumstances to come together at the right moment. You're also fighting against teams such as HTC-Highroad who have Cavendish, who to me is still the fastest man in the world."
Damiano Cunego maintained his overall lead with a timing of 17 hours, 14 minutes and 11 seconds. Juan Mauricio was the runner-up with 54 seconds adrift, while Bauke Mollema finished third with 1 minute and 16 second behind the Italian.
The next stage will start in Tobel-Tagerschen and end in Triesenberg/Malbun. All the riders will cover a distance of 157.7 kilometres.
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