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2009 Tour de France – Stage 6 News and Notes

July 9th, 2009 by Al Fresco No Comment

Welcome back! Thor Hushovd gets his stage win, David Millar rides with his heart, Stéphane Augé takes over the climber’s jersey and more 2009 Tour de France News:

Having lived in Perpignan for years, Thor Hushovd would have loved to win yesterday, but I’m sure he’s pretty happy about winning today.
With this win, Hushovd moves to within 1 point of Mark Cavendish in sprinter points.
“It’s been a really stressful week, with crashes and the rain and just the race itself … I’m just so happy,” said Hushovd, winning his first stage this year to take his career tally to seven.
“This is great for Cervelo,” Hushovd said shortly after his winning sprint. “A first Tour victory for a team is always special and that in this case is no different. We have all worked extremely hard all week for work and can now celebrate.”
David Millar was awarded with the most agressive rider designation for his long breakaway and heroic effort all the way to the end of the race. It’s quite impressive that he was still able to come across 17th after being swallowed up by the peloton just 1.2 km from the finish.
Millar said that he road with his heart instead of his head today. He lives in Girona and was on his home roads for part of the route.
Stéphane Augé of Cofidis took over the climber’s jersey from Finland’s Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux). He previously wore the climber’s jersey for two days in the 2007 Tour de France.
Bob Stapleton, the boss of the Columbia team, hopes that Tony Martin, his little 24-year-old German wonder, will one day be a potential winner of the Tour.
The rain turned the roads into a slippery mess. “Another stressful day. We were fortunate to arrive intact,” said Levi Leipheimer after the sixth stage. “The Spanish roads are a real skating rink when it rains, with lots of dirt and oil.”
Among those that went down on the slippery roads were Tom Boonen, Carlos Sastre, Michael Rogers, Heinrich Haussler, David Zabriskie and Laurens Ten Dam. There were no race ending injuries, but there will be some sore riders tomorrow.
Fabian Cancellara is realistic about his chances for hanging on to the yellow jersey in Friday’s mountainous stage from Barcelona to Andorra Arcalis. “I want to defend it but I just don’t know how far I can go. If it’s over for me tomorrow it doesn’t matter. It’s been a great week and I’ve been proud to wear the jersey. But I’m ready to try and defend the jersey.”
Five time Tour de France champion Bernard Hinault is backing Alberto Contador in his power struggle with Astana team mate Lance Armstrong. “If I were Contador, I would attack Armstrong tomorrow in the climb to Arcalis to set the record straight and show him who’s the boss,” he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Contador says that he is ready for the mountains. “That is my area and I am ready to show that I am good in shape,” he said.
Doping controllers are testing for the stimulant synacthen this year. Typically used in conjunction with corticoids and anabolic steroids, it is said to improve effort and pain tolerance.
Giant will make their Trinity Advanced SL time trial bike available for sale to the public by early September. It can be yours for just $14000.

Other News:

The organizers of the Tour of Ireland have announced that Lance Armstrong and Mark Cavendish have confirmed for the race, which starts August 21st. A victim of the economic crisis, the race has been reduced in duration from five days to three days.
Top professional and amateur men’s and women’s teams will take to the streets of West Chester, PA for the 5th Annual Iron Hill Twilight Criterium on July 11, 2009, the second event on the USA CRITS National Series calendar.
British Cycling will send a two-man squad to the UCI BMX World Championships in Adelaide, Australia later this month. Marcus Bloomfield and Liam Phillips, who have shown great form at this year’s UEC European BMX Championships, will make the journey Down Under.
USA Cycling and the Louisville Sports Commission are proud to announce the return of the USA Cycling Masters Road National Championships to Louisville in 2010. Following two years of successful events in Louisville, USA Cycling awarded the sports commission an extension on their contract to host the Masters Road National Championships which recently concluded inside Churchill Downs.
Belgian Serge Pauwels has signed a contract with Britain’s new Sky cycling team. He has only been with Cervelo for six months.

Other Results:

Dries Devenyns of Quick Step won the fifth stage of the Tour of Austria over Jeremy Hunt and Maxim Belkov. 28-year-old Swiss Michael Albasini (Columbia) remains the leader.
Columbia-HTC’s Judith Arndt won stage 6 of the GiroDonne (the women’s Giro d’Italia) on Thursday, the team’s third stage win so far. Cervelo TestTeam’s Claudia Hausler took the overall lead, but the win for Arndt moved her into second and teammate Mara Abbot is now in third. (VN)