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    Alexander
Vinokourov
|  NEWS  |
                                      Vino wins fourth stage Paris-Nice.

Although Alexander Vinokourov didn't came to Paris-Nice to win this year, cenrenly wasn't going to pass up an opportunity for a stage win, and he made the most of it today to take the long stage between La Puy-en-Velay and Rasteau. Vinokourov took advantage of a split caused (yet again) by the CSC team with 20 km to go, and jumped away on the côte the Buisson wiht 8 km left to hold of the other riders in the front group in final style.











This year I altered my program to be in form for the Tour de France, and World Championships. That's the reason I'm not aiming for the overall victory."

How it unfolded
   
The decisive move came on the final climb, the Cat. 3 côte de Buisson with 8 km to go when Alexander Vinokourov put in a poweful acceleration with 1 km from the summit. Although Rebellin and Jaksche immediately reacted they couldn't take the wheel of the iron-legged Kazakh.Vino crossed the top with a 10 second lead over the rest of the group, and powered over the final 5 km to keep them all at bay. With 350m to go, Vino looked around and knew he would win, crossing the line with four seconds to spare on the yellow jersey group which was led home by Jaksche himself.

Source: www.cyclingnews.com
Vinokourov dedicated his win to his fallen friend and compatriot Andrei Kivilev, who died almost a year ago on March 12, after crashing in stage 2 of the 2003 Paris-Nice. "I wanted to win for him [Andrei Kivilev]. This is magnificen," said Vinokourov to French television post-stage.
I"I absolutley wanted to win a stage of this Paris-Nice. Today was the occasion to do it, because you'll never know how the next stages will go. It was very difficult for me because I'm not in my best form.