Sergio bags 10th stage
Gap (France), July 14: Portugal’s Sergio Paulinho offered the ailing RadioShack team their first ever Tour de France success when he pipped Belarusian Vasil Kiryienka to victory on the 10th stage Wednesday.
Paulinho was one of several riders who got into an early breakaway and which built a maximum lead of 12 minutes on the peloton as they finally raced out of the high Alps. The group was reduced after Belgian Mario Aerts raced away as the road rose briefly with around 25km to go, although the Omega Pharma rider’s move ultimately left Paulinho and Kiryienka in front on their own.
Despite struggling to shake Kiryienka on the final descent towards the finish, the Portuguese timed his sprint to perfection inside the final 300 metres to beat the Caisse d’Epargne rider by only centimetres.
The remnants of the earlier breakaway finished 1min 29sec later, with the main peloton, including all the race favourites and Luxembourg’s race leader Andy Schleck, coming over the finish line over 14 minutes later. Saxo Bank leader Schleck, the runner-up in 2009, retained his 41sec lead on Astana’s reigning champion Alberto Contador with his fellow Spaniard, Samuel Sanchez, in third at 2:45.
RadioShack suffered several setbacks in the first week when Armstrong crashed several times and lost precious time to rivals due to a puncture on stage three. The American’s dream of an eighth yellow jersey then virtually ended during Saturday’s seventh stage when he finished almost 12 minutes behind most of his rivals.
Despite a remarkable second place finish in the Olympic road race in 2004, Paulinho is more known for his value as a ‘domestique’. Nevertheless Paulinho, who has only six career wins, is hoping it gives some morale back to Armstrong’s team.
“After all the bad luck we had in the first week of the Tour, this comes at the right time. I hope it gives a bit of morale back to the team,” said Paulinho.
Prior to this stage Paulinho’s biggest victory was the 10th stage he won at the Tour of Spain in 2006. Most of his other victories are from winning the Portuguese championship.
Thursday’s 11th stage is a 184.5km ride from Sisteron to Bourg-les-Valence which should see the return of a bunch sprint.
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