Pippo as promised

By Gregor Brown in Autun

Filippo Pozzato lived up to his promise and took the 182-kilometre stage five from Chablis to Autun. The long-haired 25 year-old Italian put the power on high after the final right-hander at 350 metres to go to overtake his adversaries and live up to his promise of the day before. Cyclingnews' Gregor Brown reports on 'Pippo' Pozzato's second career stage win in the Tour de France.

In 2004, Pozzato took his first win in the Tour de France at a mere 22 years old. The Italian from Sandrigo was riding on Giancarlo's Ferretti's Fassa Bortolo team and put a marker down of greatness to come by winning the 204.5-kilometre stage to Saint Brieuc. "I took a big risk to win today and it worked out," stated Pozzato after his win three years ago.

'Pippo' steadily grew by taking one solid win a season; after switching to Quickstep in 2005 he won the HEW-Cyclassics, in 2006 the big one came with Milano-Sanremo and this year he had already taken the Belgian Classic Omloop Het Volk. (Read the Cyclingnews Het Volk post-race feature.)

Cyclingnews had spoken with the talkative rider the day before in Villers-Cotterêts and he had hinted strongly of a win to come. "Tomorrow will be good for me," he predicted. "I think it will be a stage to control because everyone will want to go into an escape but we will try to control it so that it arrives in a sprint. A sprint from a small group." He concluded, "I will tell you how it goes tomorrow night."

See the full story here.

Full Stage 5 coverage: Stage details, Full results, report & photos, , Video