American team Columbia picked up its fifth stage win at the Tour de France, with Big Marcus Burghardt outsprinting Carlos Barredo of Quick Step-Innergetic and beating him across the finishing line Thursday in Stage 18.

Marcus Burghardt of Columbia celebrates his stage win at the Tour de France, as he crosses the finishing line ahead of Carlos Barredo of Quick Step-Innergetic. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)

Marcus

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Burghardt had been in an early breakaway that was reeled in by the peloton, and then he bridged across to Barredo after the Quick Step rider attacked 68 kilometers into the 196.5 kilometer stage from Bourg-d’Oisans to Saint-Étienne. In the lead-up to the finish,. Burghardt survived a series of attacks by Barredos before sprinting away in the final 150 meters.

Romain Eillu of Agritubel, Christophe le Mevel of Credit Agricole and Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi also escaped from the peloton and finished 3:33 back. The peloton, including all of the G.C. contenders, finished 6:50 behind the Burghardt so there was no change in the overall standings, led by Carlos Sastre of CSC-Saxo Bank. A handful of riders, including top young rider Andy Schleck of CSC-Saxo Bank and Schleck’s main rival for the white jersey, Roman Kreuzinger of the Liquigas boy, finished 11 seconds ahead of the main group.

Burghardt joined sprinter extraordinaire Mark Cavendish as a stage winner for Columbia. Cavendish won four stages before withdrawing on Sunday so he can rest and recuperate for the Olympics.

It’s been a great Tour for Columbia in its debut with a new sponsor. In addition to the stage wins, Kim Kirchen was in the yellow jersey for four stages and currently ranks 11th in the G.C. Big George Hincapie finished fifth in an alpine stage on Tuesday, and Konstantin Sivtsiv, the Tour de Georgia winner, has gotten stronger through the Tour, climbing to 18th in G.C. after a strong performance in the Alps.

In the Columbia’s dominant first week of the Tour, Burghardt often was at the front of the peloton, tapping out tempo with Big George as Columbia controlled the race. The breakaway and stage win was his reward for a job well done.

“It was exceptional to see Marcus do what did today,” letour.com quoted Columbia team owner Bob Stapleton as saying. “He was injured in January and missed all the Spring Classics - which is really what he lives for - and he fought hard to come back and be ready for the Tour. He’s only got about 35 days of racing in his legs and he worked super hard the whole race to defend the yellow jersey, help the lead-outs for ‘Cav’ and then he gets to do something here and he pulled it off. It’s just great for the team. It lifts the motivation of everybody involved. It’s what every worker needs; to believe that some day he’ll get a chance to win… and he did, and he did it.

:The other thing is, ‘Boogie’ is exhausted. He’s been riding at the front for the whole race. He’s probably been on television more than any single athlete in the Tour because he’s been at the front so much. I was just nervous that there was just too much accumulative work over the course of the Tour. And Barredo tested him; we saw it. There were repeated, sharp attacks and they’re really painful for a tired rider and Carlos did everything he could to win but ‘Boogie’ was just too strong. On television it looked kind of funny, it looked like Marcus could have eaten him; the size difference between the two was pretty significant.”

Letour.com quoted Burghardt as saying: “It’s amazing because we have had such success already in this team and now I can’t believe it that I have also taken a victory in the Tour de France. The first attack came at kilometer zero and I was in the first group with seven riders that was caught after the first hour of racing. I didn’t give up and attacked again and was pleased to be able to make the selection.

“Near the end of the stage, Carlos [Barredo] and I exchanged a few words and he said that he wouldn’t work anymore because he thought that I am faster in the sprint and it turns out that I had better legs in the end.

“It was important that, in the first two weeks that I helped Kim [Kirchen] and Mark [Cavendish] and maybe that was also the reason that we had so much success in the first days. Our management is really good, we have a really nice team and a great spirit in our group and I think that’s the key to how we’ve achieved the success we have at this year’s Tour de France. We came here knowing that we could be strong but I’m very happy to have contributed to success in the early stages and to get a win for myself is something I’ll remember for a long time.”

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