| | Reuters
LIMOGES, France -- Christophe Agnolutto ended a two-year drought for home riders in the Tour de France when he won the 127-mile seventh stage from Tours to Limoges Friday.
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Christophe Agnolutti withstood a grueling pace on Friday. |
The 30-year-old Parisian remained on his own for 80 miles to give the host country its first stage victory since Jacky Durand won in Montauban in 1998.
Italian Alberto Elli retained his overall leader's yellow jersey on the mostly flat stage, made treacherous by violent showers and strong winds. He held a 12-second advantage over Frenchman Fabrice Gougot.
Defending champion Lance Armstrong finished 20th in the stage and stood in 12th place overall, 5:54 off the pace.
Agnolutto, surprise winner of the 1997 Tour of Switzerland when race favorites failed to chase him early in the race thinking he was no threat, tried his luck again and won the section by one minute, 11 seconds.
"I'm very happy. I've had to wait for two years to win a race again. A Tour stage, for a Frenchman, it's fantastic," said the AG2R team rider. "I had warned my teammates I would try something today. I went on my own because I'm not very fast in sprint finishes.
"I don't win very often, but it's always big ones. It's great."
German Marcel Wust outsprinted the main bunch for second place.
Agnolutto's effort was especially tough as he had to stretch many times during his three-hour solo to fight cramps.
German Erik Zabel, third behind Agnolutto and Wust, was unable to celebrate his 30th birthday with victory in his first sprint finish on the Tour for three years. Wust also denied him the consolation of taking the points leader's green jersey.
Agnolutto's win was the result of the first successful solo break in this year's Tour, which claimed its first victims one week after the start from the Futuroscope theme park.
Australian sprinter Stuart O'Grady pulled out with a broken collarbone after he was involved in a crash near the finish of Thursday's sixth stage to Tours. Veteran Dane Jesper Skibby also retired because of a lingering knee injury.
The last winner of a stage in Limoges was Armstrong, who dedicated his victory to team mate Fabio Casartelli, killed in a crash three days before.
All dope tests made on the first three stages were negative, the International Cycling Union said. Corticoids were found in some urine samples but the riders involved had medical prescriptions.
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 Stage 8 course map
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