Italian Lampre-Caffita rider Daniele Bennati has won his second stage in this year's Deutschland...
Daniele Bennati (Lampre) (Image credit: AFP)
Bennati strongest sprinter in Germany
Italian Lampre-Caffita rider Daniele Bennati has won his second stage in this year's Deutschland Tour when he crossed the line in front of Briton Roger Hammond (Discovery Channel) and Australian Baden Cooke (Française des Jeux) in stage five's bunch sprint finish in Friedrichshafen today.
Bennati thereby also took the red points jersey from Filippo Pozzato (Quick.Step). "I'm 'felicissimo' with this second stage victory," the 24 year-old said. "But I really have to thank my teammates who did a wonderful job for me today - I only finished off their work." Averaging 45.6 km/h despite a Cat. 1 climb to master in the middle of the parcours, the riders came into the finish way ahead of schedule.
No changes occurred on general classification, where Levi Leipheimer still leads by 18 seconds ahead of teammate Georg Totschnig, with Jan Ullrich 56 seconds back in third place. Tomorrow's stage six will take place on 171.3 rather flat kilometres from Friedrichshafen to Singen, where another bunch sprint finish is expected before the overall leaders battle it out again on Sunday at the race's second mountain summit finish, the 'Feldberg'.
