Tour de France: Burghardt zips in for victory to steal Barredo's thunder

By Alasdair Fotheringham with the Tour de France Mark Cavendish may have quit the Tour with four stage wins under his belt, but even without him the Manxman's Columbia team continue to rack up the victories. Columbia's fifth came yesterday when the German Marcus Burghardt easily outgunned Spaniard Carlos Barredo in a two-way sprint at St Etienne. Both one-day Classic specialists, with the mountains now crossed and Paris approaching, the stage represented a rare opportunity for two non-favourites to go clear. Striking gold in such unpromising terrain made Burghardt's gleeful arm-waving as he outsprinted Barredo all the more understandable – and it contrasted with Barredo's equally dramatic thump on the handlebars – to express his dismay at falling at the last post. But if there were amateur dramatics galore on yesterday's... [read full story]