Big day for Milram's big man

By Susan Westemeyer

It was a very big day at the Tour de France for Milram's big man, Marcel Sieberg. His aggressive riding in a long breakaway brought him the red number as the most active rider as a reward, and his parents were at the finish in Gent to see him arrive.

The 1.98-metre tall German, riding in his first Grand Tour, attacked only 18 km into the stage, and he was eventually joined by Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Cédric Hervé (Agritubel). The trio built up a lead of nearly six minutes, and stayed away long enough to raise their hopes that they might make it through to the end. The sprinters' teams had other ideas, though, and finally roped them in with only 3 km to go.

"It was a beautiful stage," said the happy 25 year-old on the team's website, team-milram.com. "I had picked this stage out for an attack, because I know the area here from the Belgian classics," he told the German press agency dpa.

He even crossed the finish line in good company. "Just when I was back in the bunch, I was involved in the crash. I arrived at the finish with Fabian Cancellara."