Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) won the 6th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010 this afternoon in Marina di Carrara. At the finish, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) received his third pink leader's jersey for the general classification.
A resume of the 6th stage of the Tour of Italy 2010: Fidenza > Marina di Carrara
Today's stage started at the exit of Fidenza at 12.55 this afternoon for 172 kilometers towards Marina di Carrara and contained 3 climbs: the Passo del Brattello, the climb towards Spolverina and at less than 11 kilometers from the finish the climb towards Bedizzano.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Rubens Bertogliati (photo, Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) and Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) managed to get away from the peloton at kilometer 45. The two riders quickly increase their gap up to 5 minutes on the top of the Passo del Brattello where Lloyd passes the ligne before Bertogliati. When the peloton passes there Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago - CSF Inox) takes a small lead to take some points for the King of the Mountains classification where the Italian rider was 2nd behind Paul Voss (Team Milram) before the stage.
In the descent of this Passo several riders fall and Paolo Tiralongo, Alexandre Vinokourov's team mate in the Astana team and Guillaume Bonnafond of the AG2R La Mondiale team have to abandon.
The gap of the two leading riders continues to increase up to 5'48". At the intermediate sprint in Aulla Bertogliati passes the line first, before Lloyd. In the peloton, which follows at 5'18" the sprinter of the Garmin-Transitions team, Tyler Farrar takes the 3rd place. A bit later Lloyd has to wait for Bertogliati who got a flat tyre.
In the climb towards Spolverina a group of 5 riders gets a small lead on the peloton: Serguei Klimov, Jose' Cayetano Sarmiento (Acqua & Sapone), Johann Tschopp (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Evgeni Petrov (photo, Katusha Team) and Matteo Bono (Lampre-Farnese Vini). At the top, Lloyd is again the one who takes the points for the King of the Mountains classification, ahead of Bertogliati and followed at 2'12" by Petrov, Sarmiento and Tschopp and at 3 minutes by the pink jersey, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo).
In the last climb of the day, towards Bedizzano, Matthew Lloyd attacks and passes on the top 28 seconds ahead of Bertogliati, 1'20" ahead of the trio Tschopp, Petrov and Sarmiento and 1'40" before the peloton. While the purchasing group is taken back by the peloton, Lloyd only has to make sure not to fall to be sure of his stage win. Rubens Bertogliati follows him at 1'06" while the sprint in the peloton is won by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini), ahead of Manuel Belletti (Colnago - CSF Inox) and Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas-Doimo) at 1'15" from the winner.
Vincenzo Nibali also finished in this peloton and thus keeps his pink jersey in the general classification.
The route of the 7th stage - Carrara > Montalcino slightly modified
Because of falling rocks in Volterra, the first climb of the day at 117 kilometers from the start, the route of tomorrow's stage has been slightly modified.
When the riders arrived at kilometer 102, the race continues directly to Roncolla (on the SR.439dir where the feeding zone is), without visiting Volterra. There will thus be no points to win for the King of the Mountains classification at that point since the top of the 3rd category climb will not be visited. From Roncolla the riders will continue on the initial route and the stage is thus reduced from 222 to 220 kilometer.
The classifications after the 6th stage of the Tour of Italy 2010
The Fidenza Village > Marina di Carrara stage classification
The top 10 of this 6th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010 is as followed:
Michele Merlo (Footon-Servetto) has abandoned during this stage.
General classification
Nibali still has the lead of the general classification but André Greipel and Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) fall back respectively to the 56th and the 107th place at 10'41" and at 14'47":
Thanks to his third place at the intermediate sprint, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) takes the lead of the classification by points and Graeme Brown (Rabobank) also passes ahead of the winner of yesterday's stage, Jérôme Pineau:
By passing first on top of the 3 climbs of today's stage, Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) took enough points to directly take the lead of the King of the Mountains classification, followed by Paul Voss (Team Milram) who was wearing the jersey of this classification until today:
There've been some small changes in the top 5 of the best young rider classification where Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Doimo) keeps the lead:
1/ Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Doimo) - 18h55'58"
2/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'25"
3/ Robert Kiserlovski (Liquigas-Doimo) - +1'04"
4/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) - +2'20"
5/ Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Diquigiovanni) - +6'59" by Thomas Vergouwen
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