Vinokourov is back with a bang
05.08.2004/ Alexander Vinokourov has completed his comeback from injury with a win in the second stage of the Regio-Tour, a 19 km individual time-trial around Müllheim. The Kazakh clocked a time of 22 mins 15 secs, enough for a 37 secs winning margin on U-23 world champion Markus Fothern (Gerolsteiner) and 39 secs on team-mate Stephan Schreck.
It has been a great Tour for the T-Mobile riders so far; Vinokourov's stage win comes hot-on-the heels of Schreck's victory in Wednesday's opening stage. Schreck battled bravely in today's time-trial to defend the yellow jersey and he now has a two second advantage on Vinokourov in GC. Two other T-Mobile riders also finished in the top ten; Aussie rider Cadel Evans clocked the fourth best time and the Czech rider Tomas Konecny finished eighth.
"It has been the perfect day of the team. Let's hope that it continues like this", said Schreck. Vinokourov was also in high spirits after the stage: "I didn't expect to win here today. There are some other very strong time triallists here, such as Michael Rich. But I sense that I am getting back into the swing of things again following my injury woes, and I will be giving it my all to make sure that I arrive in Athens in peak condition."
A satisfied directeur sportif
T-Mobile directeur sportif Frans van Looy was happiness personified after the stage: "We have a top-class group of riders here. Four riders in the top ten - the pressure is off the team for the remaining stages."
Stage 3 is a 178.9 kn trek that will take the peloton from Neuenburg over the border to Guebwiller in France. The five stage Regio-Tour (UCI-Category 2.3) finishes on Sunday.
Source: www.t-mobileteam.com
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