Petacchi cruises to dramatic sprint win

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Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) took an unlikely stage victory in the Tour de Suisse in a dramatic finale that saw Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) collide with Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam) and take down the other top sprinters.

Cavendish, unleashing what looked to be a race-winning acceleration, slammed into Haussler as the pair muscled past Milram's Gerald Ciolek, sending both riders tumbling to the pavement. Ciolek rammed the pair and also went down.

Petacchi emerged from the resulting chaos to take the win ahead of Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) and Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil), but, looking back to witness the carnage before crossing the line, did not celebrate his victory.

The Lampre sprinter was not necessarily in contention for the stage victory until the sudden crash. He led a group to the right side of the course, while Cavendish, Ciolek and Haussler were fighting it out ahead down the middle.

"I won but after a crazy finish and huge crash," Petacchi said. "I committed to one side of the road to launch my sprint. I kept looking across to see where my rivals were but then I noticed a strange movement and heard a huge noise. At that point I just kept going straight ahead because I knew I'd won.

"I'm sorry to have beaten people like Cavendish, Haussler and Ciolek because they were caught up in a crash and I don't know if I'd have won anyway. But life is strange: after a lot of really bad luck, I was really lucky today."

Milram's director Ralf Grabsch was displeased that his sprinter was put into a position where he could have been more seriously injured.

"Gerald Ciolek was in an optimal position at the finish," Grabsch said. "It may not have been enough for a victory, but a podium placing was certain. In the end, of course, we are just happy that Gerald wasn't injured."

While Cavendish and Ciolek escaped injury, Haussler was taken to hospital for examinations after rolling across the line, and Caisse d'Epargne's Arnaud Coyot was transported from the race in an ambulance with a suspected broken hip.

How it unfolded

The 157 riders remaining in the Tour de Suisse after the departure of HTC-Columbia's Michael Rogers got underway from Schwarzenburg for the 192.2km relatively flat journey to Wettingen. With just two classified climbs, the category 3 Regenberger on the final two circuits well out from the line, it seemed as if the day would be one for the sprinters to test their legs.

However, just 10km into the day, Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil) set out on a solo breakaway with the intent of claiming the glory for himself.

The peloton was content to let the Frenchman have his moment in the sun. Feillu, who last year won the mountain top finish at the Tour de France on Arcalis, may not have been on his type of terrain, but still built up over nine minutes until the chase by the HTC-Columbia team of overall leader Martin picked up speed.

Feillu put in a valiant effort to stay clear, but with the first entry to the 27km circuit, he had little more than three minutes, and the gap was falling fast.

On the final circuit, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Lampre teams seemed to be the most intent on chasing the slender escapee while the HTC-Columbia team took a back seat, staying near the front only to keep Martin out of trouble.

Behind Feillu, the fight for the mountains classification intensified, with Euskaltel-Euskadi launching Aitor Hernandez to try and steal the climber's jersey from Katusha's Alexandre Pliuschin, while Steve Morabito (BMC) hit out to challenge Milram's Mathias Russ for the sprint title further down the road.

Feillu's gap was down to a handful of seconds on the entrance to the final loop, and, completely exhausted, he finally succumbed with 25km to go in the stage.

On the final trip up the Regenberger, an attack from Vacansoleil's Wouter Poels stirred up the action. He was followed by Omega Pharma-Lotto's Philippe Gilbert, who pushed the pace and forced Martin to chase on his own to make the front split. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) slipped away, gaining a 10 second lead as all the race favourites tested their legs behind.

Andy Schleck put in a dig, as did Fabian Cancellara, but both Saxo Bank riders were pulled back as the chase behind Hesejdal became furious.

Leif Hoste (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) split off from the bunch in pursuit of the Canadian, but only succeeded in gaining a few metres over the bunch. Before another futile attack by Vacansoleil failed to gain ground.

It wasn't until the Quick Step team decided to come to the fore that Hesjedal was finally pulled back inside 10km to go. Once the race was all back together, HTC-Columbia took control of the pace as the sprinters teams began to assemble their lead-out trains.

Milram hoped to set up Gerald Ciolek, Quick Step for Boonen, Katusha for McEwen - all the while knowing that HTC-Columbia had Mark Cavendish as its trump card safely in the front group ready to launch off Mark Renshaw's wheel.

The yellow jersey himself helped keep his sprinter in position, even taking to the front with 4km to go for a brief moment as the pack negotiated the many roundabouts en route to the finish.

With 3km to go, Greg Van Avermaet (Omega Pharma-Lotto) burst from the pack in an attempt to steal HTC-Columbia's thunder, but his attack was nullified by Quick Step with 2km to go.

Astana was next to try to ruin Cavendish's chances, with Allan Davis trading his sprint for a kilometre-long effort. Gilbert, Ciolek both tried to get the jump on the sprint, but Cavendish hit the front with 200m to go in a perfect position when he collided with Haussler and both came crashing to the ground, opening the door for Petacchi to cruise to the stage win.

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