[Le Tour 2003]Stage 6 - Breakaway Again

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 6 - Nevers to Lyon - 230

Today will be one of the longest stages of the race.  Correcting my 
forcast of yesterday, the final climb today will actually be a Category 
4 climb rather than a cat3 - a bit shorter but still pretty steep 
looking on the profile.

Someone has definitely been messing with the termostat again, and it is 
another screamer of a cloudless, sunny and hot day with temperatures up 
to 88 degrees.  The humidity has lessened a bit, down to 27%.  For those 
of us in California, this means nothing as we don't really understand 
what humidity is. The "reflected" heat at road level will aprroach 120 
degrees - hope those mechanics glued those tires on well.

Report is that Tyler Hamilton is feeling a bit beter today. Although he 
spent a bit of time in the tow of the race doctor yesterday, the bone 
continues to heal as he gamely assists the efforts of teammate Carlos 
Sastre.

A two man breakaway has been extending a lead over the bunch since the 
30 km mark, with Credit Agricole's Stuart O'Grady leading Brioches la 
Boulangerie's Anthony Geslin over the first sprint point, an act which 
he repeats at the second sprint point as well. That gives O'Grady a bit 
of sprint and time bonuses.

Fassa Bortolo's Alessandro Petacchi roared out took third at the 1st 
sprint point, putting him one point in front of Robbie McEwen in the 
battle for the green Points jersey.

The break had moved out to a 18 minute gap, but the bunch have now 
clawed it back to 12 with 84 km to go.

Ogrady rolls through the third sprint point in the lead, but way back 
behind him, Lotto's McEwen wisely pips out to take the third points at 
the last sprint point today, putting him back into the green jersey, 
which is good, because he's already got it on his shoulders.

Road begins to edge up, and the lead begins to drop a bit, now down to 
11:47 with 77 km to go.

Euskatel-Euskadi's Iban Mayo, who caused some headaches to Lance at the 
Dauphine Libere, drifts back to the team cars with a couple of 
teammates.  They've been having more than their share of flats, but this 
time, he sidles up to the rear door of the car and has the mechanic 
working on the tension of his pedals.  He probably could have found a 
worse stretch of road to have this done, as the twisting tarmac have him 
first almost under the wheels of the his car and then getting squished 
between his car and a passing team car. Somehow they manage the first 
pedal, then he switches over to the other side - maybe he's hoping to 
get pushed over the edge ofthe roadway.

The lead pair sit 10:15 ahead as O'Grady lets Geslin take the climbing 
points.  They take on water and roll the big ring as they begin downhill.

In the peleton, Christophe Mengin zips out and around on the final run 
in to the points. FDJeux.com teammate Sandy Casar follows a Boulangerie 
rider in the immediate chase - the man who has the KoM jersey - Jean 
Delatour's Frederic Finot - cracking slightly when push came to shove 
and will gain no points.  He will lose the polka-dot climber's jersey 
over to Mengin at the end of the day unless something happens on the 
day's final climb.

FDJeux.com's other story, Jimmy Casper, got rid of his neck brace in 
time for the Team Time Trial, but continues to roll stiffly along, 
hovering near the back of the group and just looking fairly miserable as 
he hopes for recovery or at least a good chiropractor.

The gap falls down to 9 minutes at the crest of the climb,  but it edges 
back up by 10 or 15 seconds as the bulk of the riders descend.

In a bit of a trivia tidbit, Alessandro Petcchi has indicated that he 
will attend the Veulta Espana in September, and thus could be the third 
rider to win stages in the three major tours in a single year.

Carlos Sastre gets paced back through the team cars by a couple of CSC 
teammates - looking smart on their semi-compact Cervelo framesets.

Manuel Beltran from USPS find himself on the side of the roadway with a 
rear flat.  Team manager Johan Bruynel is the person who pushes him back 
up to a proper momentum.

Gap: 7:20/40 km to go

The last climb gives Stuart O'Grady the idea of putting in a couple of 
surges to test the young Frenchman who has been his breakaway partner.
Still around 4 minutes ahead with just over 20 km to go. Geslin holds on 
gamely, wise enough to pace his efforts. O'Grady attacks twice more as 
the gap edges down to 3:40.  Geslin reattaches both times and then nips 
over the crest to take the climbing points, but he looks a bit wobbly 
after the effort.

At the head of events, Fassa Bortolo has decided that they don't like 
the odds of a decent gap combined with a descending final 20 kilometers 
and begin cranking up the efforts on the final climb.  Riders begin 
dribbling out the back of the bunch as the torrid pace of the past few 
days catches up with them. Jean Delatour's Frederic Finot is among the 
riders who cannot maintain contact.

As they roll over the crest, Fassa Bortolo turns over the pacemaking to 
a combine of sprinter's teams, and nearly every team who has a 
thick-legged fearless man pushes things up to the front.

After opting out for a bit Geslin begins helping O'Grady again as the 
gap sits at 2:20 with 15 km to go - should I jinx their lead by saying 
they have a chance?  A ten-speed riding fan tries to match speed with 
the riders from a parrallel roadway.  He can hold on for a hundred 
meters or so - and these two guys have been hold this kind of pace for 
nearly 4 hours.

Back at the snarling peleton Lotto dip into the rotation with a Telekom 
rider - none other than Guiseppe Guerini, who's claim to fame is being 
the rider who got knocked off his bicycle by a camera-wielding fan a few 
years back as he rode to victory on L'Alp d'Huez.

Into the increasingly complex roads on the outskirts of town, the lead 
at 10 km to go is 1:30 and everyone is urged along by a massive crowd 
who stand deep along the roadeside.

Gap: 1:26 at 9 km

The leading pair negotiate sudden traffic dividers and twisting turns  - 
one of which Geslin almost misjudges as he leads the way.

Behind them, Andy Flickinger continues hammering the pace.

Gap: 1:22 with maybe 7 km from the line.

As the peleton arc around a tight right there is a crash in the field - 
Lotto's Robbie McEwen and Telekom's Erik Zabel are among those tangled 
up as a rider inside and in front of them slides out. McEwen is up and 
away fairly quickly, though he is far from in touch with the leaders. 
Zabel extricates himself and regains his bike, but it has not fared well 
and he must await the team car.  He will only be idling in today.

The riders fly along the banks of the Rouen river in the town of Lyon.

Gap: 1:09 with 5 km to go - but they no longer have the assistance of 
Telekom and Lotto who have throttled down with no one to take to the 
finish.  Now it falls to Rabobank, who have managed to  stretch things 
out, trading with Ag2R riders.

Gap: 45 seconds at 5 km

Now the race directors cars pull forward - getting themselves out of a 
gap that has been in place for more than 200 km.

Nevertheless, there is a slight slowing and disorganization - as the 
group rolls under the 5 km a FB rider has pipped off all by himself, but 
it seems less by design than confusion.

Today's final straight is 2.1 km of dead straight wide roadd.  Crikey. 
Nowhere to hide as this stage winds down.

Vini Caldirola riders mass at the front of the bunch and take up the 
reigns. Behind the, the clever old pros are weighing their chances, and 
the Italian-flag-wearing Paolo Bettini shows his face first on one and 
then the other side of the pacemakers - he does, afterall have the 
nickname "El Grillo" (the cricket). Ullrich slots into Bettini's pocket 
as everyone begins to sense blood in the water.

Gap: 3 km to go with a 25 second lead - about 600 meters separate the 
breakaway pair of O'Grady and Geslin from the thundering herd.

- Another CRASH in the field - the final left hand bend causes two 
riders to slide out and go down - doesn't seem bad and no contenders are 
involved - but clearly the efforts of regaining this breakaway have 
taken its toll.

The breakaway pair hammer under the 2 km banner - nothing other than 
pain in front and nowhere to hide from their pursuers.

Gap: 12 seconds - 120 meters ahead of the bunch, closing fast

Brad McGee peels off after a massive pull in front of the peleton. The 
peloton now must be able to feel the spray of their sweat as it drifts 
back on the wind.

A shuffling occurs as riders refuse to be caught out - splitting into 
two points on the roadway. There's actually a slight moment of dinking 
around as they try to find teammates and figure out the sprint.

Gap: Under 1 km with 5 seconds lead.  They need a miracle to stay away.

Bettini now takes up the lead on the left hand side of the roadway, 
while true hardman O'Grady tries to raise the pace, switches over from 
the right and attempts to make a go of it.  The legs say "no" and 
another Credit Agricole rider, the massive Thor Hushovd, chugs up the 
barriers on the inside. The two FDJeux.com riders who thought they'd 
timed things right bobble the leadout and split around Hushovd, losing 
organization and momentum...

But here comes Petacchi!  He screams up the barriers inside of Hushovd, 
pops away while jumping hard to the right and gains immediate and 
considerable daylight - he simply rides everyone off his wheel, having 
time to stop pedaling and take an almost lazy look behind him - win 
number 4 for Petacchi!  A phenomenal example of supreme speed!

Stage 6 Results -
1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - 5:08:35
2 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com
3 - Fabrizio Guidi - Bianchi
4 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole
5 - Marco Milesi - Vini Caldirola
6 - Damien Nazon - La Boulangere
7 - Sebastian Hinault - Credit Agricole
8 - Gerrit Glomser - Saeco
9 - Yuriy Krivtsov - Jean Delatour
10 - Luca Paolini - Quick Step

All riders - s.t.

Jersey Results -
Petacchi gains the green Points jersey with his 4th vitory and the 
points gained out on the course. O'Grady's efforts move him up to 8th. 
Of course, in order to win the jersey, you have to finish the race - and 
some of the big men will crumble before the massive climbs of the Alps 
and Pyrenees are done.

1 - Petacchi - 144 pts
2 - Baden Cooke - 118
3 - Robbie McEwen - 110
4 - Hushovd - 100
5 - Zabel - 98
6 - JP Nazon - 88
7 - Lazlo Paolini - 87
8 - O'Grady - 85
9 - Jan Kirsipuu - 84
10 - Oscar Freire - 83

KoM - Christophe Mengin regains the polka-dot jersey, but the real 
climbs await.

White Jersey - Vladimir Karpets of Ag2R, who may be trying to take over 
the "best Mullet" jersey as well.

Tomorrow's Stage:
Stage 7 - Lyon - Morzine - 230.5 km
Put on the 27 tooth cog and get ready to climb. Though everyone seems 
aware that Sunday's stage will finish at L'Alpe d'Huez, the transitions 
and shifting to serious climbing is always difficult.  More 
significantly, this stage includes 4 climbs which have never been 
included in the Tour.  Lance Armstrong has openly identified the 
1600-plus-meter Category 1 Col de Ramaz (14.3 km at average 6.9 percent) 
as a difficult climb he is concerned with - it crests only 21 km from 
the finish, with a sudden drop and another climb (Cote des Gets - 4.2 km 
at 4.6 percent - Category 3) and descent before the finish. Cracks will 
begin to show, and strong men will cry out in pain before the bunch 
reach the finish.


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