GRENOBLE, France, 13 June 2004 — Former mountain bike world champion Michael Rasmussen won the sixth stage of the Dauphine Libere cycle race after breaking away from the start yesterday.
The 30-year-old Dane, who has spent most of his career off the road, surged away on the whistle and led for the entire 144 km of the hardest mountain stage this year, between Gap and Grenoble.
Spaniard Iban Mayo retained the overall lead and looked ideally placed to win his first Dauphine Libere after finishing second behind Lance Armstrong last year.
Despite Rasmussen’s fine effort, the overall standings hardly changed.
American Tyler Hamilton crashed in a descent but was able to make it back into the main bunch and retain his second place overall, 36 seconds behind Mayo.
Spain’s Oscar Sevilla is third overall ahead of Armstrong, who is two minutes behind the leader.
Rasmussen, who rides for Dutch team Rabobank, was joined by Italian Ivan Basso, one of the Tour de France favorites, for part of his breakaway.
But the CSC team leader had a mechanical problem on the last climb and the Dane was left on his own.
Ullrich Wins Tour of Switzerland First Stage
In Beromuenster, Switzerland, Germany’s Jan Ullrich, warming up for the Tour de France, captured the opening stage of the Tour of Switzerland yesterday after winning a sprint to the finish.
T-Mobile’s Ullrich, who was part of a five-man breakaway, beat Phonak’s Swiss rider Oscar Camenzind to the line at the end of the 176-km stage.
Ullrich came home in four hours seven minutes 56 seconds after narrowly outpacing Camenzind, his fellow Swiss riders Fabian Jeker and Steve Zampieri and Spaniard David Canada Garcia.
