'Vino will fight to the end'

2007-07-13 22:02

Bourg-en-Bresse - Yellow jersey favourite Alexandre Vinokourov will continue the Tour de France, despite enduring a painful day in the saddle.

Both Vinokourov and his fellow team leader Andreas Kloden were injured in separate spills on Thursday's crash-marred fifth stage.

Kloden sustained a hairline fracture to his coccyx and Vinokourov receiving 30 stitches in cuts on his knees.

The pair started and finished Friday's sixth stage, although Kloden hobbled into the team bus afterwards, obviously in pain, having spent the day trying to stop his right foot from becoming numb.

Vinokourov looked in better health; the Kazakh having rode the mainly flat 199.5km stage from Semur-en-Auxois to here with bandages on both knees.

Tough days in the Alps ahead

Team manager Marc Biver says it is far too early to say whether either rider, or both, will soon succumb to the difficulties which lie ahead, namely trying to race for two tough days in the Alps.

Biver was relieved that Friday's sixth stage, which ended in a bunch sprint won by Tom Boonen, had been relatively calm.

The Swiss team manager appears pessimistic over Kloden's condition, but affirmed that Vinokourov, despite lacking power in his pedal stroke as a result of his injured knee, would battle till the end.

"The stage was really hard, and he (Vinokourov) felt the pain in his knee. He's had problems , mainly with getting power on the pedals.

"The stage was relatively calm, fortunately for us because otherwise it would have been a different story. But despite that, we're not jumping around in optimism."

Asked if Vinokourov would start on Saturday's seventh stage, the first of two consecutive days in the Alps, he added: "Of course he will start. He's never talked about pulling out.

Kloden had a bad day

"I know him, he's a fighter. He will do whatever it takes to stay in the Tour. If he has to die on the bike, he will. He'll do everything to stay in this race."

As for Kloden, Biver seemed less optimistic for the German's long-term future on the race: "He had a bad day, and was in a lot of pain. He had a bandage on the sciatic nerve.

"His right foot is going to sleep. He can't put a lot of pressure on it, and so the pedals.

"I think he and Vino are practically in the same boat, except for one its the knee and for the other its the coccyx and the hip."

- SAPA