Tour de France metes out gain, and pain to McEwen and Lancaster

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

CANTERBURY, England (AFP) — Australian Robbie McEwen will still be hurting whether or not he saddles up for the Tour de France second stage on Monday - but he will be sorely missed if he doesn't.

McEwen shrugged off a crash 23km from the end of the 203km first stage from London to here, producing one of his trademark bursts to seal a memorable 12th stage win on the race.

Swiss racer Fabian Cancellara of CSC, the winner of Saturday's prologue, retained the race leader's yellow jersey with a 13sec advantage over Astana's Andreas Kloden.

As well as equalling Erik Zabel's record of 12 Tour de France stage wins for an active rider, McEwen pulled on the race's green jersey, which he could realistically win for a fourth time but which an aging Zabel won six times...