Oscar Freire (Rabobank) pulled off an impressive solo win in the seventh stage of the Tour de Suisse, with a cheeky attack in the closing kilometres to drop his four breakaway companions and hold off the peloton by just 3 seconds. The sprinters had to settle for second place, with Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) edging out Erik Zabel (Milram) for the honours. The overall classification remained unchanged, with Koldo Gil (Saunier Duval) still in the lead.
Freire was one of four survivors of an early break, the others being Salvatore Commesso (Lampre-Fondital), Michael Rogers (T-Mobile) and Matthew White (Discovery Channel). With a hard charging peloton chasing them all the way into Ascona, there wasn't much room for tactics. But Oscarito surprised everyone by jumping over a median strip with 5 km to go to take the shortest way around a roundabout...and he was gone.
