Cycling: Jalabert denied by Petacchi's late burst

Alessandro Petacchi snatched victory from Laurent Jalabert as the fifth stage of the Paris-Nice ended in a dramatic sprint finish yesterday. Jalabert, in second place overall, appeared to have timed his burst to perfection as the peloton rounded the final bend en masse in the Toulon-Cannes stage. But as he moved to his right Petacchi exploded down the middle to take the stage win by less than a bike's length.

The tightly-packed finish limited the chances of movement in the overall standings, with leader Alexandre Vinokourov losing just one of the six seconds he had on Jalabert.

In Frosinone, Italy's Paolo Bettini beat the overall leader Erik Zabel by two seconds to win the second stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race, but the German Telekom rider retains the lead.