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Bennati doubles in German tour; Leipheimer holds lead
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Italian Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Caffita) won a sprint finish in the fifth stage of the Tour of Germany on Friday, collecting his second victory in this year's race.
Roger Hammond (Discovery Channel) took the runner-up slot in the 219.2km stage from Sölden in Austria to Freidrichshafen in Germany. Baden Cooke (Française des Jeux) was third.
Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), sixth in this year's Tour de France, retained the overall lead after his triumph in Thursday’s mountainous fourth stage. He leads teammate Georg Totschnig of Austria by 18 seconds with German Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) third at 56 seconds.
A group of six riders broke clear of the peloton an hour into a stage that brought the tour back over the Austrian border into Germany. They built a lead of more than five minutes before being swallowed up in the final kilometer.
With 400 meters left, Lampre and Wiesenhof positioned their sprinters and it was Bennati who had enough gas left to take the stage win, which goes nicely with his victory in Wednesday’s third stage from Bodenmais to Kufstein in Bavaria.
"Yesterday's mountains were hard, but I recuperated fairly well," the 24-year-old Tuscan told Reuters. "My team trusted me, and I have to thank my teammates, who did a fantastic job, I only finished it off. I'm very happy with this second stage win."
Saturday's sixth stage is a 175km run from Friedrichshafen to Singen.
Stage 5 results
1. Daniele Bennati, Lampre, 04:48:02
2. Roger Hammond, Discovery Channel
3. Baden Cooke, Francaise des Jeux
4. Sebastian Siedler, Team Wiesenhof
5. Volodymyr Bileka, Discovery Channel
6. Fabian Cancellara, Fassa Bortolo
7. Luciano André Pagliarini, Liquigas-Bianchi
8. Luke Roberts, CSC
9. Filippo Pozzato, Quick Step
10. David Etxebarria Alkorta, Liberty Seguros
Overall, after five stages
1. Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, 24:05:04
2. Georg Totschnig, Gerolsteiner, at 0:18
3. Jan Ullrich, T-Mobile, at 0:56
4. Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto, at 1:22
5. Jörg Jaksche, Liberty Seguros, at 1:28
6. Tadej Valjavec, Phonak, at 1:51
7. Saul Raisin, Credit Agricole, at 2:56
8. Fabian Jeker, Saunier Duval, at 3:16
9. Patrik Sinkewitz, Quickstep, at 3:16
10. Wim Van Huffel, Davitamon-Lotto, at 3:58
