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STAGE 2: THOR HUSHOVD HAMMERS TO VICTORY IN STAGE TWO
Brad Roe
July 6, 2008
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Thor (pronounced “tour”) Hushovd made his French sponsors Credit-Agricole very happy today with a confident win on the 164.5 kilometer stage from Auray to Saint-Brieuc. Recovering from a cold that kept him out of the Norwegian Championships last week, Saturday’s Stage One was his first race back, “Yesterday was a hard day for me as I have been sick, but in the final I felt strong. Today I felt better but I didn’t know I could go for the win so this is a little too much.” The thirty year-old rider from Grimstad Norway likes the weather and atmosphere of the Brittany region of France, “I like Britanny a lot, it is a bit like Norway with the weather.” Calling himself “not a pure sprinter,” Hushovd said he is setup well for stages with climbs at the end as his legs have some energy left for the final meters.
Thor also spoke of his shift in training in the last five years to focus more on sprinting so he could win more races. Cancellara launched an attack under the "flamme rouge" but Thor was set up well by his lead out man, Mark Renshaw, “When Cancellara went his is always dangerous, so at six-hundred meters to go I said to Mark ‘I’m on your wheel, don’t panic’ and he gave me the perfect leadout.” This stage win was Thor's sixth at the Tour de France.
Stage Two Results (Auray - Saint Brieuc)
1 Hushovd, Thor..Credit-Agricole
2 Kirchen, Kim..Columbia
3 Ciolek, Gerald...Columbia
4 Hunter, Robert...Barloworld
5 Zabel, Erik...Milram
General Classification Stage Two
1 Valverde, Alejandro...Caisse d'Epargne
2 Kirchen, Kim...Columbia
3 Freire, Oscar...Rabobank
4 Cobo Acebo Juan Jose...Saunier Duval Scott
5 Evans, Cadel...Silence-Lotto
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