Farrar on the rebound

23 year-old American Tyler Farrar confirmed his comeback from a fractured kneecap with a sprint win in stage two of the GP Internacional CTT Correios in Portugal. The Cofidis rider took a closely contested sprint from Barloworld's Robbie Hunter with a well-timed bike throw, and gains not only the stage win but the overall classification, the points classification and the lead in the best young rider competition as well.

The 196 kilometre stage contained three categorised climbs, with one category four and two category three climbs bunched in the middle of the parcours, followed by a long gradual descent to the flat finish. The day started with a break of three going clear, with Grupo Nicolas Mateos' Sergi Escobar, Russian Eduard Vorganov (Karpin-Galicia) and Luis Silva (Duja-Tavira) gaining a maximum of 7'38" on the peloton before the Barloworld team of leader Enrico Degano took charge of the chase.

After the breakaway was caught, Farrar, wearing the orange points leader jersey as second placed rider in that competition behind the overall leader Degano, was ushered to the front for the sprint by his Cofidis squad. "It was not an easy day today, but my team was perfect," said Farrar after the finish,"They did everything for me. When the team rides like that it makes things easier for me."

Farrar has had a bumpy start to his professional career since he began his two-year contract with Cofidis in 2006. His season was just getting started when he was involved a stage one pileup in the Circuit de la Sarthe that sidelined him with a broken collarbone. Farrar came back to gain a string of top ten finishes in minor races before starting the 2007 season with higher hopes. He looked to be on track after a 9th place in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, but then was waylaid again by a crash in Gent-Wevelegem where he fractured his kneecap. Farrar quickly rebounded from the injury to take third on stage two of the Tour of Belgium at the end of May before enjoying his current success in Portugal.