Zabel produces vintage Bordeaux sprint

[Patrick D. Walters]

 2 20-JUL-1995 17:47 Zabel produces vintage Bordeaux sprint


   BORDEAUX, France, July 20 (UPI) -- German sprinter Erik Zabel produced a
vintage burst of speed to win the 246km (128-mile) 16th stage from Pau to
Bordeaux on Thursday in 6 hours, 29 minutes and 47 seconds.
   Zabel, who also won the sixth stage, deprived the 'Tashkent Express'
Djamolodin Abdujaparov of repeating his 1993 Tour success. He had to settle
for second, with Italy's Stefano Colage claiming third.
   Zabel, a 25-year-old from Berlin, showed his burgeoning talent when he won
the 1994 Paris-Tours classic.
   Spaniard Miguel Indurain was happy to stand above the fray, retaining his
yellow leaders jersey.
   France's Thierry Marie, veteran of 10 tours and six stage victories, went
for glory early on by launching a lone attack.
   Marie made a brave effort but he was swept aside 12 kms (7.45 miles) from
the finish.
   There followed a series of attacks by Marco Serpellini and two of Gianni
Bugno's teammates, Swiss Rolf Jaermann and Italian Flavio Venzella, but all
were picked up by the peloton.
   Into the finishing straight it was Dane Jasper Skibby, a victim of a
fractured skull in the 1992 race, and Russian Viatecshlav Ekimov who went for
the line.
   Abdujaparov, however, enjoying a quiet tour, charged past the ailing Skibby
and Ekimov only for Zabel to overhaul him.