Cancellara takes 5th stage
ByReuters
Published 12/03/2006 at 15:18 GMT
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara battled through rain and hailstorms to win the 20-km stage five time trial in the Tirreno-Adriatico cycle race in Servigliano on Sunday. The Team CSC rider set a time of 27 min. 37 sec. for the hilly course, while Leif Host
CYCLING 2005 fabian cancellara
Image credit: Imago
Dutchman Thomas Dekker became the new overall race leader after finishing 18 seconds adrift in third place. He is ahead of Germany's Joerg Jaksche and Alessandro Ballan in the overall standings.
Cancellara was delighted at recording his first victory in 2006 and the 21st of his six-year professional career.
"I did everything I could do to win today. It's an important result for me and for my CSC team," Cancellara said.
"It's important for me because it motivates me for the spring classic races. It's important for the team because we're going through a black cloud at the moment with riders crashing and being injured.
"I hope this is the start of a lucky spell just in time for the big one-day races."
The CSC team have lost several key riders in recent races.
Stuart O'Grady broke his collar bone and five ribs during stage two of Tirreno-Adriatico and will miss next Saturday's Milan-San Remo race.
Christian Vandevelde, Michael Blaudzun, Matti Breschel and Dave Zabriskie are all injured, while Bobby Julich pulled out of the Paris-Nice race on Sunday after hitting a motorbike.
Monday's sixth stage has been modified due to the weather and will now end in Torricella Sicura instead of the hill-top village of San Giacomo.
The Tirreno-Adriatico finishes on Tuesday.
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