Tour de Suisse stage 5

Albasini king of Serfaus

Cancellara beat in Swiss duel, Valjavec holds the race lead with four days left to race

Michael Albasini (Team Columbia-Highroad) at the start of stage five.

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Michael Albasini of Columbia-Highroad topped a two-man sprint with Swiss compatriot Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) on the Serfaus climb at the end of Tour de Suisse stage five Wednesday. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC) finished slightly behind the duo in third.

Slovenian Tadej Valjavec (AG2R La Mondiale) defended himself in an elite group of around 12 riders to keep the race lead he took yesterday. He leads by 14 seconds over both Swiss Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas) and Cancellara with four days remaining.

Another Swiss, Pascal Hungerbühler (Vorarlberg-Corratec), dominated the early part of the stage. He held a lead of around eight minutes over the main group for part of the stage, which included the Arlbergpass climb (1793m). He remained ahead for nearly 150 kilometres.

A new escape group, Marcus Burghardt (Columbia-Highroad) and Björn Schröder (Milram), took shape right after Huingerbuhler's capture. They had 46 seconds with 25 kilometres remaining. The duo's move lasted another 15 kilometres.

Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) took over at the base of the final climb. Tony Martin (Columbia-Highroad) joined him, but a thinning group of overall favourites were close behind.

AG2R tried to keep the favourites in one group for its for Tadej Valjavec. The others tried to test his strength in the final kilometres of the climb (1429m). Martin was the most active in the closing five kilometres.

Pre-race favourite Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) lost ground in the closing kilometres. He slipped out of the top ten overall.

Results

1	Michael Albasini (Swi) Team Columbia - Highroad	5:24:04
2	Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank
3	Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C.
4	Olivier Zaugg (Swi) Liquigas
5	Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha
6	Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas
7	Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
8	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana
9	Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale
10	Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - Highroad

General classification after stage 5

1	Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale	18:52:01
2	Olivier Zaugg (Swi) Liquigas	0:00:14
3	Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank
4	Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas	0:00:42
5	Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana	0:00:45
6	Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad	0:00:54
7	Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - Highroad	0:00:55
8	Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank	0:00:56
9	Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha	0:01:01
10	Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne	0:01:02