Tour Racing To Thrilling End

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 21, 2007

By ROGER VAUGHAN, ADELAIDE

ONE second separates Tour Down Under leader Martin Elmiger of Switzerland from Australian cyclist Karl Menzies heading into today's final stage.

Elmiger took the race lead from Menzies by gaining a two-second time bonus for third place in yesterday's 147-kilometre fourth stage at Willunga, including a four-kilometre climb up Old Willunga Hill Road.

Tour rookie Elmiger and Menzies were in a frenzied sprint of 24 riders at the rain-soaked finish and the Tasmanian was 11th.

Menzies had led since the opening stage and the race now comes down to a battle between his talent-packed UniSA team and Elmiger's well-drilled Ag2r squad in today's 90-kilometre circuit race around the Adelaide parklands.

The race leader's ochre jersey has changed hands only once on the last day in the tour's nine-year history.

German Kai Hundertmark and Australian Stuart O'Grady were tied in 2001, with Hundertmark leading because he had won the second-last stage, but O'Grady gained two seconds during the last stage to take his second title.

It will come down to the time bonuses available today for the leading riders at the two intermediate sprints and the finish on the 4.5-kilometre circuit.

"You have to ride clever, I can sprint well and I have to try again for them (bonuses) - I will fight, I am confident enough," Elmiger said

Belgian Pieter Ghyllebert scored the second stage win for Chocolade Jacques at this tour when he took out the bunch sprint.

He had successfully led out teammate Steven Caethoven at the end of stage two and yesterday teammate Jens Renders did the same for Ghyllebert.

Menzies was in trouble at the top of Old Willunga Hill, about a minute off the pace, but strong work from teammates Chris Jongewaard and Robert McLachlan in the last 20 kilometres of the stage brought him back to the front of the race.

Menzies was unimpressed with how the final sprint panned out, but there was no protest. "It was a bit of a hectic sprint, there were a few guys doing some stupid stuff at the finish," Menzies said.

? Top Australian track cyclist Anna Meares made hard work of winning the sprint at the world cup round in Los Angeles yesterday.

The Australian sprint champion and world record holder in the 500 metres time-trial beat Clara Sanchez of France two heats to nil in the best-of-three final.

Meares had qualified 10th-fastest in 11.716 seconds for the flying 200, meaning a tough passage through the earlier rounds. -- AAP

TOUR DOWN UNDER

Standings after stage four

1 Martin Elmiger

(AG2r Prevoyance) 14hr 2m 15s

2 Karl Menzies (Australia-UniSA) 1s

3 Lars Bak (Team CSC) 8s

4 Matthew Lloyd (Predictor-Lotto) 10s

5 Gustav Larsson (Unibet.com) 18s

6 Luke Roberts (Team CSC) 47s

7 Gene Bates (SouthAustralia.com-AIS) 47s

8 Paolo Longo Borghini (Barloworld) 52s

9 Yannick Talabardon (Credit Agricole) 52s

10 Simon Clarke (SA.com-AIS) 1m 5s

TODAY'S FINAL STAGE: 90 kilometres on an

Adelaide street circuit

© 2007 The Sunday Age

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