Norway’s Kurt-Asle Arvesen gave the CSC team their first stage victory on this year’s Tour de France when he prevailed at the end of a 167,5km ride from Lannemezan to Foix on Wednesday.
Australia’s Cadel Evans of the Silence-Lotto team retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey when he finished safe in the bunch almost 15 minutes behind.
”I was still suffering from my crash but it is going better every day,” said Evans, who still leads Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck by one second in the overall standings.
Evans crashed midway through the ninth stage, sustaining cuts and bruises on his left side.
Wednesday’s 11th stage started without Barloworld’s Moises Duenas Nevado, who was kicked out of the race by his team when it was revealed that he had become the second Spaniard to test positive for the blood-boosting erythopoietin (EPO) on the Tour.
The first Spanish casualty was Liquigas’s Manuel Beltran, who was thrown out of the race last Friday.
Arvesen was one of 12 riders in a group that broke away after 35km on Wednesday.
France’s Amael Moinard tried his luck solo in the ascent of the category-one Col de Portel and led his fellow breakaways by 90 seconds, but could not hold on.
In the main pack, 2006 champion Oscar Pereiro of Spain also made a break but was swiftly swallowed back.
Arvesen and two other riders jumped away 3km from the finish, with the Norwegian outsprinting Swiss Martin Elmiger and Italian Alessandro Ballan, second and third respectively.
”I’ve been waiting for this since my first Tour in 2004. In 2005, I was only second [in a stage],” said Arvesen. ”Today [Wednesday] is a bit of a revenge for me.”
”It’s a wonderful victory for Kurt,” said CSC team manager Bjarne Riis. ”We are all happy because he has done a lot of work for the team.”
Barloworld suffered a nightmare. On top of Duenas Nevado’s exclusion, two other riders from the team exited the race after falling — Italian Longo Borghini and Spain’s Felix Cardenas. — Reuters