Cycling: Sagan wins second Tour stage

American Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo celebrated Independence Day in perfect style on Monday, by outsprinting the peloton to win the third stage of the Tour de France.World champion Thor Hushovd of Norway retained the race leader's yellow jersey.Farrar timed his run-in to perfection, shadowing Hushovd's break in the final 1km of the 198km run from Olonne-sur-mer to Redon and kicking with 150m to go to complete the stage win in 4hr 40min 21sec.French rider Romain Feillu and Spanish champion Jose Joaquin Rojas were second and third in the stage.

Young Slovakian Peter Sagan won the fifth stage of the Tour of California ahead of Australian Michael Rogers, who seized the overall leader's yellow jersey from American David Zabriskie.The stage was marked by a crash involving American Lance Armstrong, who was forced to withdraw from the race.Armstrong received a cut under his left eye that required eight stitches and suffered a severely bruised left elbow, his RadioShack team said.

Slovakian Peter Sagan of Liquigas won the eighth and penultimate stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a 167.3km ride between Tubach and Schaffhausen Saturday.Sagan dominated a small bunch sprint following a frenetic final 25 km in which a split in the peloton left many top sprinters, including Britain's Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad, trailing behind.Italian Damiano Cunego had been part of the front chasing group and finished with the bunch to retain the race leader's yellow jersey ahead of Sunday's final stage, a 32.1 km time trial around Schaffhausen.

Former track cycling sprint king Theo Bos of the Netherlands dominated a bunch sprint for the second successive day to win his second stage in the Tour of Castilla y Leon Thursday.Bos, who switched to road cycling last year and now rides for the Cervelo team, beat Rabobank's Australian sprinter Graeme Brown in the 209.9 km stage between Burgos and Carrion de los Condes in the north of Spain.Spain's two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, of Astana, finished seventh in the same time to move up from 19th to seventh in the race's general classification.

Spain's Alberto Contador secured a third Tour de France yellow jersey Sunday after the 20th and final stage to the Champs Elysees won by Briton Mark Cavendish.Cavendish powered to the finish line alone for the second consecutive year to claim his fifth stage success of this year's race and 15th of his career.Italian Alessandro Petacchi, the winner of two stages, finished second on the stage to secure the green jersey for the race's points competition.

Spain's three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador won the Tour of Catalonia on Sunday after the seventh and final stage.Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin won the stage, a 124.5km ride from Parets del Valles to Barcelona, for his second win of the race.For 28-year-old Contador it was his second overall success in three races this season, having won the Tour of Murcia.However, it will be a bitter sweet win as the International Cycling Union (UCI) announced earlier this week it would appeal the Spanish federation's decision to acquit him of doping allegations.

Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador won his first ever Tour of Murcia on Sunday after winning the third and final stage, a 12.4km time-trial round Murcia.The 28-year-old Spaniard was recording his first win since being controversially cleared over his positive test in last year's Tour de France by the Spanish cycling federation.

Sprinter Robert Forster will spearhead the German Team Milram at Australia's Tour Down Under in January, organisers said on Monday.Forster has ridden in the Tour de France three times (2005, 2007, 2008) and is rated by his team as one of the best sprinters in international cycling."Forster has had stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana and will be one to watch vying for sprint points in January," tour race director Mike Turtur said.