Snow shortens Queen stage
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ByEurosport
Published 06/08/2006 at 09:37 GMT
The fight for the yellow jersey gets underway in Sunday's Stage 5, but absent of the HC Kühtaisattel, which was cancelled due to snowfall. Rain and cold temperatures have wreaked havoc on the Tour of Germany, but the snow leaves the Deutschland's Queen st
CYCLING 2006 Paris-Nice stage one snow
Image credit: Reuters
Long rainy rides and mass sprint finishes have been par for the course at this year's Tour, but with the finish at the Cat. 1 Mosern the general classifications contenders will have to make a play for the yellow jersey.
Erik Zabel was satisfied taking the leader's jersey on Saturday, but the sprinter will hardly have any time to enjoy it as Stage 5 should belong to the climbers.
"It was my last chance to take the lead before the mountains," Zabel said after finishing third in a Stage 6 mass sprint and taking the overall lead on bonus seconds. "I'd have liked a stage win, but leading the race is also very important."
Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer won last year's Deutschland Tour with a strong mountain performance, but was disappointed with his Tour de France after finishing outside of the top-ten.
A strong showing in the opening mountain stage could be a precursor to adding another Deutschland scalp to his 2006 season, which has included an overall victory in the Dauphine Libere.
But Discovery Channel's Vladimir Gusev, who won the prologue and held the yellow jersey until Saturday, would like to take the lead back.
His team is confident in the Russian's newfound climbing abilities heading into two days of mountains before the penultimate time trial.
"Vladimir's climbing has progressed enormously," Gusev's team manager, Sean Yates, said. "He's lost a lot of weight, recently won the Tour of Saxony and is in good form overall."
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