The big favourite Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) wins the individual time trial in Paris-Nice 2011 and takes over the yellow jersey

Added: friday 11 March 2011 at 17:19:00

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Between Rognes and Aix-en-Provence (Puyricard) the riders of Paris-Nice 2011 mesured individually today in a 27 kilometer long individual time trial.

As expected the big favourite, Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad), won this individual effort in 33'24"15, taking over the yellow jersey from his compatriot Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack) at the same time.
The summary of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2011
Something quite exceptional in Paris-Nice: the 6th stage took place as an individual time trial.

After a short bit going north up to the Bassin de Saint-Christophe, the riders continued southwards slightly going uphill before descending back to the finish line in Puyricard.

The road was generally in a perfect condition and what was thus most remarkably in this time trial was the absence of spectators. At one moment however, the road transformed in something which could have been a small farmer's road as you can see in the photo on the right. According to BMC Racing Team's Sean Weide (thanks for the picture!), the pavement turned to crushed gravel where the road winds to the left and to exit this stretch the riders had to make a hard right turn.

Rapidly the best intermediate time was established by the Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) while the young espoir Andrew Talansky (Team Garmin-Cervélo) took the second intermediate time behind him. It was only the last riders who managed to get under the time of the Dutch rider, first of all with Richie Porte (Saxo Bank-Sungard) who took 28 seconds of the best time and rapidly after him with Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) who took 6 more off it.

Finally, it was not really a surprise that Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) finished with the best time, 20 seconds faster than Wiggins. The former yellow jersey, Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack), finished at the 4th place at 46 seconds.
The classifications after the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2011
The stage classification
The top 5 of this time trial close to Aix-en-Provence is as follows:

1/ Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) - 33'24"
2/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - +0'20"
3/ Richie Porte (Saxo Bank-Sungard) - +0'29"
4/ Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack) - +0'46"
5/ Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'55"

Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) finally finished 6th at 57 seconds.
The general classification after the 6th stage
The general classification of Paris-Nice 2011 got yet a bit more fixed during this individual time trial. 2 German riders are leading the general classification:

1/ Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) - 25h59'47"
2/ Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack) - 0'36"
3/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - +0'39"
4/ Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - +1'10"
5/ Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale) - +1'14"
by Thomas Vergouwen
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