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Norway's Kurt-Asle Arvesen of CSC won stage 11 of the Tour de France in Foix by the narrowest of margins after beating fellow escapees Martin Elminger and Alessandro Ballan by a whisker.
The 33-year-old Norwegian national road champion attacked on multiple occasions in the final couple of kilometres into Foix and ultimately proved too strong for Switzerland's Elmiger (AG2R), albeit by a couple of centimetres.
Italian one day specialist Ballan (Lampre) was well beaten for third while Dutchman Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) took fourth.
"This is unbelievable and the first time I have won a stage on the Tour de France since my first race in 2004," said Arvesen, a two-time Giro stage winner.
"I had a great day today and despite the hectic final, everything went well for me and I had really good legs too, which helps. I have finished second before in 2005 and so this is a kind of revenge."
The four riders were part of a 12-man breakaway which at one point had built up a 16-minute gap over the peloton.
Yellow jersey Cadel Evans of Australia (Silence-Lotto) maintained his one-second lead over Arvesen's CSC team-mate Andy Schleck of Luxembourg despite feeling the continued after-effects of his spill on Sunday's stage 9.
"I was still suffering from my crash but it is going better every day," said Evans, who is bidding to become the first Australian to wear the fabled maillot jaune all the way to Paris.
The stage started under a cloud with news that Spain's Moises Duenas Nevado of Barloworld had been kicked out of the race after providing a positive test for the blood-boosting erythropoietin on stage four.
Duenas Nevado was the second Spaniard to fail the Tour's tight doping controls following the positive test of compatriot Manuel Beltran of Liquigas last week.
Things did not get any better for the rider's Barloworld team with the retirement of Paolo Longo Borghini with a fractured collarbone and Felix Cardenas with a cut leg, leaving the team with just five riders.
The British-registered team has been on the back foot since the second day of the race when the 2007 polka dot jersey, the Colombian Juan Mauricio Soler, injured his wrist and was forced to pull out two days later.
Coming after Tuesday's rest day in Pau, the 167.5km transitional
stage 11 from Lannemezan to Foix featured little talking points in terms of the general classification.
Spain's Oscar Pereiro, the 2006 winner and team-mate of pre-race favourite Valverde, tried his hand at a solo attack after a frustrating time in the Pyrenees saw him lose more than six minutes in the GC.
Although he managed to open up a gap of around two minutes over the peloton after his attack on the stage's principal challenge, the first-category Col de Portel, Pereiro was not able to stay out in front and was swept up by the bunch with 20km left to ride, his body language betraying his obvious anger.
The Col de Portel was where Frenchman Amael Moinard (Cofidis) had launched his own attack from the breakaway group further up the road. Moinard rode more than 60km ahead alone before being caught with less than five kilometres to spare.
Other big names in the group included Germany's Weggman (Gerolsteiner) and Italy's Pozzato (Liquigas), neither of whom were involved in the last-ditch counter attack which saw Arvesen beat three other riders to take the spoils.
The peloton came home almost 15 minutes in arrears, with another Norwegian, Hushovdt outsprinting rivals Zabel , Duque and Oscar Freire
Rabobank's Freire maintains the green jersey while Italy's Ricardo Ricco of Saunier Duval holds both the polka dot and white jerseys for best climber and youngster of the Tour.
Thursday's 168km stage 12 from Lavelanet to Narbonne sees the race hit the Mediterranean coast and should provide an opportunity for Britain's cavendish of Team Columbia to compete for his third victory of the race
Italian one day specialist Ballan (Lampre) was well beaten for third while Dutchman Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) took fourth.
"This is unbelievable and the first time I have won a stage on the Tour de France since my first race in 2004," said Arvesen, a two-time Giro stage winner.
"I had a great day today and despite the hectic final, everything went well for me and I had really good legs too, which helps. I have finished second before in 2005 and so this is a kind of revenge."
The four riders were part of a 12-man breakaway which at one point had built up a 16-minute gap over the peloton.
Yellow jersey Cadel Evans of Australia (Silence-Lotto) maintained his one-second lead over Arvesen's CSC team-mate Andy Schleck of Luxembourg despite feeling the continued after-effects of his spill on Sunday's stage 9.
"I was still suffering from my crash but it is going better every day," said Evans, who is bidding to become the first Australian to wear the fabled maillot jaune all the way to Paris.
The stage started under a cloud with news that Spain's Moises Duenas Nevado of Barloworld had been kicked out of the race after providing a positive test for the blood-boosting erythropoietin on stage four.
Duenas Nevado was the second Spaniard to fail the Tour's tight doping controls following the positive test of compatriot Manuel Beltran of Liquigas last week.
Things did not get any better for the rider's Barloworld team with the retirement of Paolo Longo Borghini with a fractured collarbone and Felix Cardenas with a cut leg, leaving the team with just five riders.
The British-registered team has been on the back foot since the second day of the race when the 2007 polka dot jersey, the Colombian Juan Mauricio Soler, injured his wrist and was forced to pull out two days later.
Coming after Tuesday's rest day in Pau, the 167.5km transitional
stage 11 from Lannemezan to Foix featured little talking points in terms of the general classification.Spain's Oscar Pereiro, the 2006 winner and team-mate of pre-race favourite Valverde, tried his hand at a solo attack after a frustrating time in the Pyrenees saw him lose more than six minutes in the GC.
Although he managed to open up a gap of around two minutes over the peloton after his attack on the stage's principal challenge, the first-category Col de Portel, Pereiro was not able to stay out in front and was swept up by the bunch with 20km left to ride, his body language betraying his obvious anger.
The Col de Portel was where Frenchman Amael Moinard (Cofidis) had launched his own attack from the breakaway group further up the road. Moinard rode more than 60km ahead alone before being caught with less than five kilometres to spare.
Other big names in the group included Germany's Weggman (Gerolsteiner) and Italy's Pozzato (Liquigas), neither of whom were involved in the last-ditch counter attack which saw Arvesen beat three other riders to take the spoils.
The peloton came home almost 15 minutes in arrears, with another Norwegian, Hushovdt outsprinting rivals Zabel , Duque and Oscar Freire
Rabobank's Freire maintains the green jersey while Italy's Ricardo Ricco of Saunier Duval holds both the polka dot and white jerseys for best climber and youngster of the Tour.
Thursday's 168km stage 12 from Lavelanet to Narbonne sees the race hit the Mediterranean coast and should provide an opportunity for Britain's cavendish of Team Columbia to compete for his third victory of the race
Eurosport.
posted by Midnight Sun @ 01:38,
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