O'Grady back and better than ever

Not three weeks after crashing out of the Giro d'Italia and fracturing his collarbone, Team CSC's Stuart O'Grady not only raced the Bayern-Rundfahrt, but he also took fifth in the race's final 161-kilometer stage from Bad Neustadt to Erlangen. The tough Australian was unfazed by the broken clavicle which, when compared to his massive injuries following a crash in last year's Tour de France, seemed like nothing.

"He's been feeling better and better as the race has progressed so when I asked him if he felt up to doing the sprint, he said yes," said the team's director Scott Sunderland. "We've only got four guys left on the team and there were head winds on the final stretch towards the finish line and unfortunately we lined Stuart up a tiny bit too early so the sprint was too long for him. But just the fact that he even had the strength is absolutely fantastic on top of his recent injury."

Gerolsteiner's Heinrich Haussler won the stage while the overall victory went to Christian Knees (Milram). CSC's Lars Bak was the team's top rider in seventh overall.

"This was mainly meant as training for us, but Lars did really well and so did the rest of our guys really. We decided to do this race late in the game so three of our riders had to leave after the second stage to go to the States and do races there. But we got some good training and now we're ready for the next race on the agenda," concluded Sunderland.

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