The Hindu : Sport / Cycling : Tour de France: Vasseur wins 10th stage

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Thursday, Jul 19, 2007
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Tour de France: Vasseur wins 10th stage

MARSEILLE (France): Cedric Vasseur of France won the 10th stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday, his first win at cycling’s biggest race since 1997.

Vasseur, who competes for the Quick Step team, narrowly outsprinted four other riders in a breakaway group that had pushed ahead of the main pack.

He beat fellow Frenchman Sandy Casar by centimetres across the finish line, while Swiss rider Michael Albasini was third.

Vasseur plans to retire at the end of the year. “I think I can leave cycling with my head held high,” he said.

Wednesday’s 229.5-km 10th stage took the Tour from Tallard to Marseille.

Michael Rasmussen wore the race leader’s yellow jersey as he led the peleton out of the mountains and back on the flat roads for the 10th stage, the midpoint of the race.

The stage began shortly after the German cycling federation said Patrik Sinkewitz, a T-Mobile team rider who dropped out of the Tour injured after colliding with a fan, had tested positive for high levels of testosterone on June 8 — a month before the race began. T-Mobile temporarily suspended Sinkewitz. Sinkewitz was in a Hamburg hospital being treated for facial injuries, including a broken nose, and other injuries from Sunday’s collision with a fan.

A team official said Sinkewitz was having surgery on his jaw.

Another flat stage follows on Thursday.

The race’s first time trial on will be held on Saturday, before the Tour starts climbing again with the Pyrenees. — AP

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