Friday, September 04, 2009 VINAROS, Spain: Germany's Andre Greipel took the golden jersey as overall leader of the Tour of Spain after recording his second consecutive stage win here on Thursday.The Team Columbia rider came from behind with just metres to go to beat Belgium's Tom Boonen and Italy's Daniele Bennati in a sprint at the end of the 174-kilometre race from Tarragona to Vinaros in northeastern Spain.The stage was held amid scorching temperatures that reached 38 C (100 F), a contrast to the rain on Tuesday when Greipel won the treacherous 225-kilometre fourth stage between Venlo in the Netherlands and Liege in Belgium.The 27-year-old takes over as Tour leader from Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, who had led since the time trial on first day on Saturday.In the overall classification he leads Boonen by six seconds and Bennati by 17, with Cancellara 27 seconds back in fifth place.It was his 17th victory of the season but the first time he has led a major Tour.Thursday's fifth stage was the first this year to be held in Spain after opening in the Netherlands. It was also the first to include hill climbs.It was marked by an attack in the first kilometre by Spain's Julien Sanchez Pimienta.He was soon joined by five other riders, and the six then built up a lead of several minutes. They were caught by the peloton with less than 20 kilometres to go.Frenchman Philippe Gilbert also launched a late breakaway on the final hill climb of La Ermita, but was reeled in a few minutes later.Friday's 176-kilometre sixth stage starts and finishes in the eastern town of Xativa and includes two third-category hill climbs.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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