2009 Tour de France – Stage 6 Results
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On a day of crashes, wet roads and rolling climbs, Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd powered his way to a sprint win ahead of three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank).
Garmin-Slipstream’s David Millar survived from an early breakaway until the final kilometer, where the lanky time trialist was reeled in as the course kicked sharply upwards. Although not a categorized climb, the pitch hit 6.6 percent before easing off near the finish, and was enough to shake points leader Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) from his position near the front.
At the start, Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) told VeloNews he’d put his money on sprinters who could get up steep kick: Oscar Freire, Filippo Pozzato or Thor Hushovd.
Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) kept his yellow jersey, and Astana rode at the front for much of the day to protect its GC riders, who hold the other top-5 overall spots.
A Day In Spain
With Rabobank climber Robert Gesink out with a broken wrist, 177 riders took the start in Girona under gray skies and and headed south to the Mediterranean coast. Once near the water, the 182km stage then went southwest to Barcelona over five categorized climbs.
Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream) and Stéphane Auge (Cofidis) went clear before second of the climbs, the Côte de Tossa de Mar. With a gap of 2:25 at 61km in, Millar moved in the virtual yellow.
The trio built up a maximum lead of four minutes as the rain started to fall. Auge surged ahead of his breakaway companions for maximum points over the third climb, the cat. 3 Côte de Sant Vincenç de Motalt.
Behind, Astana led as the peloton went up and over the wet roads of the climb. With the breakaway’s advantage down to two minutes min gap, the rained eased off up the Collsacreu, as Millar drove the trio. Although Saxo Bank’s Cancellara wore the yellow jersey, the Astana team — with Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Andreas Klöden and Levi Leipheimer in second through fifth overall — rode at the front as if the team already owned the race lead. Or perhaps they were just keeping safe on the wet roads. In any event, Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) jumped clear of the peloton and caught the three leaders soon after Auge took the KOM on Collsacreu, and Katusha soon took over chasing duties from Astana. Later Cervélo put some of its men to work on the front.
With the rain making the roads treacherously slippery, five riders crashed coming around a roundabout, including Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream), Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo) and Michael Rogers (Columbia-HTC). Rogers hurt his right arm and his condition wasn’t known immediately after the stage.
Ahead, Millar attacked the break with 29km to go as their lead dropped under a minute over the peloton. He quickly built up a sizable gap of a minute over the peloton, which at 25km to go swept up Auge and Chavanel. Txurruka dangled in between, trying to regain Millar.
Rabobank got on the gas, seemingly indicating Freire was feeling good about his chances at the finish.
As the field hit the upper slopes of the last climb of the day, the cat. 4 Côte de la Conreria, Astana went to the front and Remi Pauriol (Cofidis) jumped clear. As the road leveled out on the run-in to Barcelona, Pauriol caught Txurruka and the pair flailed away in pursuit of Millar.
Splattered in wet road grime, Astana patrolled the front at a steady but not frantic pace. Millar, on the other hand, was giving it everything to stay clear. With some help from riders from other teams, the peloton swept up Pauriol and Txurruka at 11km to go.
A crash coming around a lefthand bend took down a handful of riders on wet roads. Then another kilometer later Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and four or five other riders hit the deck. Boonen limped back to his bike, and slowly remounted and gingerly pedaled towards the finish.
At 5km to go, Millar had 37 seconds and was trying his legs against those of Milram and Rabobank domestiques. But it was not to be. At 2km to go, Millar took a righthand bend that put him onto the steep climb, and the day’s efforts took their toll. He didn’t get the win, but he did earn the most aggressive award.
Freire opened up the sprint with Hushovd on his wheel, and the big Norwegian muscled his bike ahead for the win.
Stage 6 Results:
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Tags: 2009 tour de france·2009 tour de france results·alberto contador·Andreas Kloden·astana·cervelo·David Millar·Fabian Cancellara·garmin slipstream·Heinrich Haussler·Lance Armstrong·lance armstrong news·lance armstrong tour de france·Levi Leipheimer·Mark Cavendish·Michael Rogers·Oscar Freire·Quick Step·Rabobank·Saxo Bank·Slipstream·Stage 6·Sylvain Chavanel·team columbia HTC·Thor Hushovd·Tom Boonen·tour de france 2009·Tyler Farrar 
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