Alexandre Vinokourov regained the overall lead of the 67th Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday after erasing a 37-second gap to Italian Francesco Casagrande in the 33km individual time trial.

Australian Brad McGee (Fdjeux.com) surprised Germans Uwe Peschel and 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich to claim the stage victory. American Bobby Julich (Telekom) was seventh.

Riding in 90-degree heat, McGee was timed in 42 minutes, 20.77 seconds, 23 seconds faster than Peschel (Gerolsteiner) and 50 seconds faster than Ullrich (Bianchi).

Vinokourov was poised to recapture the lead from Casagrande if he put down a strong race against the clock. Vinokourov said he hammered the opening section to open a gap on Casagrande, a winner of the Swiss tour in 1999.

"I decided to start off strong to break Casagrande's morale," said Vinokourov, who won Paris-Nice and Amstel Gold earlier this season.

Vino's fifth was good enough for first

Photo: AFP

The tactic obviously worked. Vinokourov, while no time trial specialist, was strong enough over the largely flat course to finish fifth while Casagrande could only manage 15th. Vinokourov enters Wednesday's finale with a 15-second lead over the Italian.

"I had a difficult period but I found my rhythm again in the last five kilometers," added the Kazakh rider, who believes he can hold the advantage in Wednesday's 151.8km final stage between Staefa and Aarau. "I've a team which works well. We're going to control the race," he said confidently.

McGee clocked 42min 20.47sec during the stage around Zurich which he described as a dream run.

"There was everything I love - bends, little bumps and wind," said the Australian.

"He (Ullrich) lacks a bit of racing but he's coming back good," said McGee of the German who is using the race to test his form ahead of the Tour which starts in 11 days.