Australian sprint specialist Robbie McEwen won the second stage of the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday, while Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan kept the overall lead.
McEwen completed the flat 175km from Murten to Nyon in 4 hours, 3 minutes, 10 seconds, finishing in a sprint along Lake Geneva.
He was followed by Julian Dean of New Zealand and Stuart O'Grady of Australia, all in the same time. Vinokourov, who won the first stage Tuesday, is three seconds ahead of Australia's Bradley McGee.
Wednesday's racing was marked by a 120km (75-mile) breakaway by young Irishman Mark Scanlon and Jurgen von Goolen of Belgium. The pair took the lead after 40km, at one point building up a lead of more than seven minutes.
They stayed ahead until 25km from then end when -- with the lead coming down rapidly -- van Goolen left Scanlon behind and struck out alone.
He clung on for another 5km but was unable to resist the advancing pack. The exhausted Belgian gave a sad wave to the television cameras before allowing himself to be swallowed up.
RSS