Vinokourov returns to winning in l'Ain TT

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Alexander Vinokourov scored his first race win since returning from a two-year doping ban on Tuesday at the Tour de l'Ain. Riding for the Kazakh national team, Vinokourov won the 8.8km time trial in St. Genis-Pouilly over Dutch rider Michiel Elijzen (Silence-Lotto).

Vinokourov returned to competition for the first time this week after serving the ban for blood doping at the 2007 Tour de France. The rider had been unable to come to an agreement with his former team, Astana, with whom he still has a contract, and was racing for his national team.

The time trial was the second of two half stages on Tuesday. In the morning's mountainous 103km stage finishing atop Mont Jura, Vinokourov finished well off the pace of the leading group, losing 3:45.

American Chris Horner, who finished second on the morning's stage, assumed the race lead following the afternoon time trial. He finished third in the test, 13 seconds behind Vinokourov.

The morning's leader Ludovic Turpin (AG2R) lost 24 seconds to Horner, who now leads the Frenchman by 19 seconds.

Horner is now poised to take his first European stage race victory.

The afternoon time trial was only 8.8 kilometres in length - too short to gain large amounts of time, but Horner was happy to finish with a 19 second lead over Turpin.

"I was hoping to get at least 15 seconds so I could have a buffer against anyone getting the 10 second time bonus on the last stage, so I can't ask for too much more."