AUTUN, France, July 12 (UPI) -- Filippo Pozzato won Thursday's 114-mile fifth stage of the Tour de France and overall leader Fabian Cancellara stretched his advantage to 33 seconds.
Pozzato finished the stage, which went between the French towns of Chablis and Autun, in 4 hours, 39 minutes and 1 second, beating second-place finisher Oscar Freire and third-place Daniele Bennati and collected his second career stage victory.
Cancellara missed a chance to further extend his overall lead, however. He and Yaroslav Popovych tried to pull away from the peloton -- the pack -- while going down a hill near the stage's end. But both racers missed a left turn and left the road. They didn't crash and Cancellara was able to finish 12th in the stage.
Cancellara, who led by 29 seconds ahead of Thursday's race, owns a 33-second overall advantage on Andreas Kloden while Pozzato has moved into third, 35 seconds behind the leader.
The sixth stage of the Tour de France is scheduled for Friday. It is a 124.7-mile run from Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse.
The 20-stage Tour de France is scheduled to end July 29 in Paris.
