Paris - Nice
Stage 6 of 7, Brignoles - Cannes
1,851 metres of total elevation today, with the worst coming at the start: the Col des Lecques is 6 km at 7.5 %. Col du Tanneron 25 km before the flat finish towards the coast in Cannes can do stuff too though, 5 km at 5 %.
Peter Van Petegem (BEL, QuickStep) the big name in today's TV-break, aiming for practice ahead of the Belgian classics. José Luis Arrieta (ESP, AG2R) and Robert Gesink (NED, Rabobank) other famous participants, with Arrieta just 7 minutes down in the general classification.
Van Petegem, however, got into trouble on the Lecques, and at the top only Gesink, Arrieta and Mourey (FRA, FDJeux) remained in the group. Van Petegem was stuck nearly three minutes down the mountain. The gaps closed somewhat in the downhill, but it was still too hard work.
On the second climb, Arrieta went alone, now nine minutes ahead of the peloton, but Gesink and Mourey worked their way back. Casson Dairy did not want to give up the fight, however, and set
Voigt, Wesemann, Mørk and Pickup to work. This injected urgency into Caisse d'Epargne as well, who slowly began working. On the Bourigaille, with 50 km to go, another attempt went:
Gray joined for Casson Dairy in chase of mountain points, but it was unsuccessful.
Arrieta, however, showed who was the strongest. A fantastic climb on the Tanneron shattered Gesink and Mourey, and despite hard work from Caisse d'Epargne and Cofidis, no one was able to hunt down Arrieta; he took a 30-second gap to the finish line.
Stage result:
1 José Luis Arrieta AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 4h32'50
2 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM + 25
3 Bradley McGee FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
4 Jérôme Pineau BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
5 Markus Zberg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
6 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
7 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
8 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
9 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
10 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
14 Jens Voigt TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
20 Steffen Wesemann TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
34 Bugs Malone TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
50 Jamee Gray TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
69 Håkon Mørk TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
132 Neil Pickup TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 10'34
148 Mathew Mitchell TEAM CASSON DAIRY s.t.
150 Heath Te-Ihi-O-Te-Rangi Davis TEAM CASSON DAIRY + 12'38
No change in general classification
Points:
1 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE 14 95
2 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM 22 79
3 Markus Zberg GEROLSTEINER 16 77
Mountains:
1 Jamee Gray TEAM CASSON DAIRY 32
2 Francis Mourey FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 24
3 José Luis Arrieta AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 19
