Stage 6

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Stage 6

Day 6 Troyes - Nancy 187 km

Analysis

As expected, there was quite a bit of attacking from the start with a number of breaks being brought back in before one break of five was permitted to escape for the day. As expected, both Voeckler and Dekker were involved in the attacking because of the KOM Jersey but neither team would let the other rider go up the road even though it was inevitable that the lead for KOM would change if Dekker didn't make the break. As expected, the break today gained considerably more time than any of the breaks for previous stages. As expected, the chase by the sprinter teams dropped quite a few riders with none of the top GC riders lost time for the Yellow Jersey but Sanchez dropped out of the top five for the White Jersey.

Did you notice Hincapie going up the road in an early break attempt? Did you see Julich match his attack? Discovery wanted to not have to tow the peloton all day, give Hincapie a chance at a stage win, and give George a chance to wear the Yellow Jersey. CSC decided to cover the Discovery attack and permit the same for Julich. But both riders were too high on GC for the rest of the peloton to let them get off so the break ended quickly. Good try.

Finally, Kirsipuu, Mengin, and three others got up the road and gained over 8 minutes before the sprinter teams began bringing the break back. The break almost succeeded for Mengin who crashed just ahead of the peloton on the last corner because of the wet road. Did you see Vino's last minute break to win the stage and gain a time bonus to close a little time on Lance? Good try but the crash forced him to unclip to miss it and Bernucci jumped from the peloton to get the last minute stage win.

Did you notice Cioni's late attack for the stage win but failed? Good try. Then Vino gave it a try and it seemed like he would succeed until the crash caused him to back off enough for Bernucci to get past him for the win.

As expected, today's stage caused changes for the KOM Title with Kroon taking the lead and keeping it for Rabobank and Dekker dropping to third behind Auge. Mengin moved up to fourth and Voeckler dropped to fifth. It shook that tree a little.

The crashed caused some of the biggest changes for today in the Points Title with Hushovd gaining considerable points on Boonen and now only being 7 points behind him. O'Grady held even but poor McEwen just can't seem to win. He dropped to sixth behind Furland and Forster because they gained points for the stage and McEwen didn't.

That was definitely an interesting stage. The crash, we could have done without.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow's stage is a long 228.5 km with two climbs and three road primes. The second climb will be the first cat 3 climb for this Tour. The first prime is 32.5 km into the stage so expect to see early and hard attacking for the break with a number of break attempts because the next day will be the first day of decent climbing putting some of the riders out of a chance of winning a stage for a while.

Expect to see Voeckler and maybe Dekker try to make the break. Watch for other riders like Bertogliati, Bodrogi, and Wegmann try for the break. The break may gain a fair amount of time but I expect it to be caught or win by a very small margin because the last climb, the cat 3 climb, is over 100 km from the finish with a slight downhill to the line. The peloton should fly from the feed zone to the finish but so should the break. It will be a fun race and should be close.

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