Stage 6 - Thursday, July 10: Aigurande - Super Besse, 195.5km
Riccò takes the stage, disaster for Schumacher
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Italian Riccardo Riccò took his first Tour de France stage victory atop the climb at Super Besse, besting Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans in the uphill sprint. The finish was overshadowed by a crash from yellow jersey wearer Stefan Schumacher, who was in the lead group in the final kilometre, but touched wheels and crashed. The judges do not apply the same time rule for crash victims on hilltop finishes, so the German lost his overall lead to Kim Kirchen (Columbia) who finished fifth.
Riccò was happy to have beaten the Tour favourites to win the stage. "Today was a great win. I beat a great champion," he said, but brushed off comparisons with his self-proclaimed idol Marco Pantani. "Pantani is unique. He won the Tour and the Giro. I have not, but I hope to get better over time." He also discounted ambitions for the podium in Paris. "I just want to gain experience," he said, and tipped the man he beat today to win in Paris. "I think Valverde can win the Tour."
With his tenacious ride, Cadel Evans moved into second overall, just six seconds behind Kirchen, and ten seconds ahead of the unfortunate Schumacher. Kirchen took over the lead in the points classification from Thor Hushovd, but the Norwegian will still ride in green as Kirchen will be in yellow.
The day's breakaway belonged again to three Frenchmen. This time it was Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Freddy Bichot (Agritubel) and Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux). Chavanel took over the lead in the mountains classification, where he is tied on points with Thomas Voeckler.
How it unfolded
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The start in Aigurande was taken by 176 riders at 12.25pm. One more rider to bail out of the race was Aurélien Passeron from Saunier Duval, who had crashed into a spectator yesterday. Under a beautiful sky and in warm temperatures, the peloton took off on the 195.5km journey to Super Besse.
Quickly, breakaway attempts moved off the front, with three Frenchmen finally managing to jump away: Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Freddy Bichot (Agritubel) and Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux). Chavanel was the one to initiate the escape at km 6, while Bichot and Vaugrenard countered soon after to join him.
Three more riders tried to make it to the leaders, but failed: Stéphane Goubert (AG2R), John Lee Augustyn (Barloworld) and Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle). The gap grew continuously. After 33 kilometres, it was already over two minutes.
At km 57, the leaders had 4'50 advantage over the bunch. On the Côte de l'Armelle (Cat. 4, km 70), Chavanel took the points before Vaugrenard and Bichot. The Cofidis rider was out to get the polka dot jersey today.
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The trio was given a maximum advantage of five minutes at the summit of the first categorized climb - after that, their lead started to shrink. By the Côte de Crocq (Cat 4, km 89), taken again by Chavanel, the peloton was 4'15 behind.
By the feed zone (km 111), the bunch led by Gerolsteiner was just 3'20 behind. The German squad wanted to keep Stefan Schumacher's yellow jersey, with the other teams also looking forward to a showdown of the GC favourites later on Super Besse. While grabbing his musette, Florent Brard (Cofidis) crashed, but was not hurt badly.
With 76km to go, Cadel Evans had a mechanical, but it was quickly fixed. A bit of rain came down on the riders, but it soon stopped again.
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When the escape group got to the foot of the first Cat 2 climb of this year's Tour, the Col de la Croix-Morand (km 158), their advantage was a mere two minutes. Chavanel accelerated with six kilometres to go before the summit and dropped Vaugrenard.
Out of the bunch came Rémi Pauriol (Crédit Agricole) but he was reeled in before the summit, together with Vaugrenard. Chavanel remained in front, together with Bichot, while polka dot jersey wearer Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) came out of the peloton to defend his mountains lead in the final metres before the KOM. He claimed third place, 56 seconds behind the two leaders.
On the climb, a sprinter's autobus formed around green jersey Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole), which was almost four minutes back as the favourites geared up for the final ascent to Super Besse.
With 25 kilometres to go, Bichot accelerated, but Chavanel stayed put. But the bunch was only half a minute away, so Chavanel ended his effort and waited for the peloton five kilometres later. Bichot insisted and held an advantage of 25 seconds.
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With 18 kilometres to the line, Crédit Agricole's Alexandre Botcharov tried to bridge up to Bichot but failed. He was swallowed by the bunch - led out by Caisse d'Epargne - three clicks later. Bichot himself finally surrendered with 13km to go.
With 11 km to the line, French champ Nicolas Vogondy went down, as well as Erik Zabel, but both were able to continue. Now started a series of attacks that were all countered by a favourites-led group that got decimated in number as the kilometres went by and Caisse d'Epargne maintained a furious rhythm.
First, Laurent Lefèvre (Bouygues Telecom) attacked with Maxime Monfort (Cofidis), but they didn't go far. Next up were Christophe Le Mevel (Crédit Agricole) and Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R La Mondiale), with David Moncoutié (Cofidis) bridging up to them a little later. Efimkin and Moncoutié managed to hold a gap, while the others were reeled in.
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With five kilometres to go, Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) countered. Moncoutié couldn't hold the pace, and neither could Efimkin. Piepoli and Vande Velde continued and hit the steep section of the climb with 1.5km to go just before getting caught again.
Caisse d'Epargne led the favourites group through the flamme rouge. Evans, Valverde, Ricco, Sastre and Kirchen were in front watching each other, with Cunego getting dropped. As they began to sprint, yellow jersey Schumacher crashed 300 metres from the line after touching Kirchen's rear wheel. He was quickly up again, but lost some time.
Ricco outsprinted everyone and led Valverde and Evans over the line. Frank Schleck came in fourth, with Kirchen finishing fifth and therefore taking the yellow jersey from the German.
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