Fédrigo hangs on to win Criterium International

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Pierrick Fédrigo (BBox Bouygues Telecom) won the Criterium International two-day race in Corsica, France on Sunday thanks to successfully defending his slim overall lead in the final 7.7km time trial stage.

Britain's David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) was fastest on the technical course around Porto Vecchio in the southern tip of Corsica. Millar set a time of 9:49, beating Alberto Contador (Astana) by two seconds. Australia's Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) was third at three seconds.

"It felt really good. I really enjoyed it," Millar said. "I spoke to Christian Vande Velde, he’s been coaching me over the last few days. I tend to overanalyze my stuff. He told me: just ride with controlled panic, so that’s what I did. It’s why I rode like a bat out of hell, and didn’t think about it. I just ran hard. Thanks to my size and my aerodynamics, it’s hard for people to go faster than me, when it’s going fast downhill with a tailwind and I used that to my advantage."

Fédrigo set a time of 10:07 and so held onto most of the 17-second lead he had accumulated during the first two stages. Rogers' third place in the time trial allowed him to snatch second place overall at 14 seconds, with Tiago Machado (RadioShack) slipping to third at 15 seconds. Millar's strong ride lifted him to fifth overall, at 19 seconds. World champion Cadel Evans (BMC) was eighth in a time of 10;01 and finished sixth overall, at 22 seconds.

Armstrong 15th in time trial

Lance Armstrong set a time of 10:08 and finished 15th in the time trial, one place and one second behind Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana). Armstrong was not satisfied with his ride but noted he had improved since the Vuelta Murcia. After losing five minutes on the hilly stage, Armstrong finished 47th overall at 5:05.

“It was not a consistent time trial with lots of turns, and ups and downs and roundabouts but it was much better than in Murcia, much steadier. Yesterday was very hard you don’t usually have such a long hard climb at this time of the year. It would probably have been better to have a longer race than just two days but I always wanted to come to Corsica. It’s just great. Next to Texas there is nothing better than the Mediterranean,” Armstrong said.

His teammate Chris Horner was best American. He was 11th in a time of 10:04 and finished eighth overall at 25 seconds.