Popovych pulls clear for stage win

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MANOSQUE, France -- Ukraine's Yaroslav Popovych, of the Discovery Channel team, won the fifth stage of the Paris-Nice cycling race in Manosque on Friday, crossing the line just ahead of the main bunch.

Italian Davide Rebellin, who rides for Gerolsteiner, retained the leader's jersey with two days of the race left.

Popovych managed to get away from his breakaway companions 14km from the finish and crossed the line about 15 seconds before the peloton.

Spain's Francisco Ventoso succeeded in securing second spot ahead of France's Samuel Dumoulin.

The start of the 178km stage, delayed by nearly half an hour after a nearby suicide, started brightly with a breakaway after just nine kilometers.

The initial 13-man breakaway group was whittled down to seven at which point there was a 2min 50sec lead over the main bunch.

There were 40km to go and Popovych moved clear on his own until the the Gerolsteiner, Caisse d'Epargne and Predictor teams gave chase to reduce the lead of the 2001 under-21 world champion.

The 27-year-old Popovych did well in last year's Tour de France to win the stage which finished at southern town Carcassonne, a year after wearing the white jersey of the best youngster into Paris.

Popovych said afterwards: "My aim was to win the stage and I attacked when I saw others in the breakaway group were tired.

"At the end I lost quite a bit of time as the peloton was going fast and I had a 160km breakaway in my legs."

In the overall standings, Rebellin has a six-second lead over Spain's Alberto Contador.

Saturday's sixth stage has nine climbs in a 200km route from Brignoles to Cannes.

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Popovych claimed the world under-21 title in 2001.

Popovych pulls clear for stage win

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