Spain’s Luis-Leon Sanchez won a sprint finish among a four-man breakaway group to claim stage eight of the Tour de France over the Pyrenees on Saturday. The Caisse d’Epargne rider timed his finish to perfection to cross the line just ahead of Frenchman Sandy Casar in a time of four hours 31 minutes and 50 seconds. Sanchez, Casar and two others — Mikel Astarloza and Vladimir Efimkin — had made a decisive break on the final climb, the Col d’Agnes, allowing the quartet to battle it out at the finish of the 176.5km hike from Andorra La Vella to St Girons.
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Albasini wins stage as Contador still leads
Swiss Michael Albasini continued Team Columbia’s impressive start to the cycling season with victory in stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country on Thursday. Columbia have already taken a host of big races this season, including Edvald Boasson Hagen’s win at Ghent-Wevelgem and Mark Cavendish’s numerous sprint victories, including in the Milan-San Remo classic. And that run continued when Albasini beat three rivals in a sprint finish at the end of the 161km ride from Eibar to Guenes.