Italy's Casagrande takes stage five of the Tour de Suisse

Italy's Francesco Casagrande won the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse Saturday and snatched the leader's yellow jersey from second-place Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan.

Mountain specialist Casagrande -- the 1999 tour winner -- completed Saturday's grueling 178km route in 5 hours 9 minutes 34 seconds. Vinokourov was 39 seconds behind the Italian, with Switzerland's Alexandre Moos third-placed, 47 seconds behind the winner.

Casagrande also was victorious in Thursday's third stage.

The podium in the eastern mountain town of La Punt was a mirror image of the race standings after five stages. Vinokourov lost his four-stage six-second lead to Casagrande, who now has an overall time of 22 hours 51 minutes. Vinokourov stands 37 seconds behind and Moos, 47.

During Saturday's stage, the riders scaled the 2,066m San Bernardino Pass midway through the route, before dropping into the valleys of the Graubuenden region.

Tour of Catalonia

Jose Antonio Pecharroman of Spain virtually secured his overall victory in the Tour of Catalonia Saturday, snatching the overall leadership from Roberto Heras and beating the world's time trial champion in the race's penultimate leg, a 13.1km time trial.

Riding for the Paternina team, Pecharroman covered the race's sixth leg in 21 minutes and 49 seconds -- making an average speed of 36km an hour.

Heras, the defending champion riding for the US Postal team, finished 52 seconds later.