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Hushovd wins a rainy stage 6
Hushovd wins wet, crash-filled day as Garmin’s Millar is swept up at final kilometer
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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 the steep kick: Freire, Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) or 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), Millar and Stéphane Auge (Cofidis) went clear before the second of the climbs, the Côte de Tossa de Mar. With a gap of 2:25 at 61km in, Millar moved into 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.
2009 Tour de France
- Stage 6: Girona to Barcelona
- 181.5km (112.8 miles)
- Stage winner: Thor Hushovd (Cervélo)
- Stage winner's average speed: 41.6 kph (25.9 mph)
- GC leader: Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)
- Points leader: Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC)
- Climbing leader: Stephane Auge (Cofidis)
- Team GC leader: Astana
- Best young rider: Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC)
- Previous stage wins/GC leaders
- Stage 1 (ITT): Cancellara/Cancellara
- Stage 2: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 3: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 4(TTT): Astana/Cancellara
- Stage 5: Thomas Voeckler/Cancellara
- Up Next:
- Stage 7, from Barcelona, Spain, to Arcalis, Andorra, is the most mountainous stage so far, with five categorized climbs, including the Category 1 Col de Serra-Seca and the hors categorie finish climb.
Behind, Astana led as the peloton went up and over the wet roads. With the breakaway’s advantage down to a two-minute gap, the rained eased off up the Collsacreu and 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 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 main bunch, which at 25km to go swept up Auge and Chavanel. Txurruka dangled in between, trying to regain Millar.
Then Rabobank got on the gas, 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.
As the bunch charged towards the line, Freire opened up the sprint with Hushovd on his wheel, and the big Norwegian muscled his bike ahead for the win.
