McEwen sprints to second Tour stage win

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – Australian rider Robbie
McEwen sprinted to his second stage victory in this year’s Tour
de France in Friday’s seventh stage.

McEwen, who had won the fifth stage in Montargis on
Wednesday, beat Swede Magnus Backstedt and Austrian Bernhard
Eisel into second and third places respectively at the end of
the day’s 228.5 km run from Luneville.

The sprint was marred by a crash involving several riders a
few meters from the line.

American Lance Armstrong, chasing a seventh Tour win, came
in with the pack to retain the race leader’s yellow jersey.

The stage was marked by a long solo breakaway by German
Fabian Wegmann, who was reined in 23 km from home but did
enough to capture the mountain leader’s polka dot jersey.

Saturday’s eighth stage is a bumpy 231.5-km ride from the
German town of Pforzheim to the French town of Gerardmer, at
the foot of the Vosges mountains. The race ends in Paris on
July 24.