Paris-Nice 2012: the sun of Sisteron shining on Luis Leon Sanchez' face

Added: friday 09 March 2012 at 18:50:00

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The sixth stage of Paris-Nice 2012 took place today between Suze-la-Rousse and Sisteron and it was the 3rd stage in row with a distance of 178 kilometers.

The creation of bordures at the very start of the stage was finally at the origin of the leading group where the two riders who battled for victory tonight in Sisteron came from. Luis Leon Sanchez won the stage with only millimeters difference from Jens Voigt on the white line which was drawn in the Avenue de la Libération of the city known for it's famous rocks.
The summary of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2012: Suze-la-Rousse > Sisteron
5 riders didn't come to the start this morning: Dmitriy Fofonov of the Astana team, Rémi Pauriol (FDJ BigMat), Maarten Neyens (Lotto-Belisol), Klaas Lodewyck (BMC Racing Team) and the winner of the first stage, Gustav Larsson (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team).

The high speed and the important gusts of wind at the start of the stage have immediately after the start led to the creation of several bordures. In the first group most of the distinctive jerseys were present, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky, yellow), Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team, polka dot) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team, white) but the green jersey, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team), missed the break.

Frederik Veuchelen continued his search for points for the King of the Mountains classification and he thus arrived first on top of the Côte de Buisson, ahead of Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan).
The leading group was at that time composed of 26 riders but Veuchelen and Voigt attacked and got in the leading position after that attack. Together, they climbed the Côte du Pas de Ventoux which is located in the shadows of its bigger brother, the Mont Ventoux, and it was again Veuchelen who took the maximum number of points, this time thus ahead of Voigt and followed a bit further by Simon Geschke (Project 1t4i). The last mentioned rider joined the leading duo and a bit later, other chasing riders joined this group as well: first of all Mikael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale), Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) and Anthony Geslin and than Daniel Navarro of the Saxo Bank team. When the last mentioned rider joins them, the gap is 3'35" with the peloton, at the back of which Guillaume Levarlet (Saur-Sojasun), in a group of pursuers, decides to call it an end.

Veuchelen continued his collection of points on the top of the Côte d'Aurel by starting the descent first, ahead of Mikael Cherel and Jens Voigt. The gap gets to its highest value at 4'30" before it stabilises around 3'30", on a peloton controlled by Team Sky.

The director of Paris-Nice than regretfully discovers that two other riders quit the roads of his race and those are not just any riders because this time it's the young and promising Dutch rider Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) and the more experimented Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale).

On the top of the Côte des Mourres, the Belgian rider Frederik Veuchelen decides to secure his polka dot jersey even more on his shoulders by getting on top of it first as well, ahead of a German duo: Simon Geschke and Jens Voigt. From there, the gap of the 7 riders starts to go down but at the first crossing of the finish line in Sisteron, it's still 1'10" when Jens Voigt wins the sprint for the points and the bonus seconds of Simon Geschke and Anthony Geslin.

When, in the final circuit, Luis Leon Sanchez accelerates, that's too much effort for the rider who thus far arrived on top of all the climbs and Frederik Veuchelen thus drops back to the peloton. After him it's up to Geslin, Navarro and Geschke to no longer be able to follow the new pace. While Mikael Cherel initially hangs on, it's finally the Luis Leon Sanchez and Jens Voigt duo who stay ahead together. When approaching the finish line, the two experimented riders seem to say: is it you or me who's going first?. In the end it was Jens Voigt who starts the sprint and he finally got beaten for only a few millimeters by Luis Leon Sanchez who already won a Paris-Nice stage in Fayence in 2009.
Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) won the sprint of the peloton behind them. By finishing in this peloton, which arrived 14 seconds later, Bradley Wiggins keeps his yellow jersey.
The photos of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 between Suze-la-Rousse and Sisteron
A selection of 38 photos of this sixth stage of Paris-Nice 2012 between Suze-la-Rousse and Sisteron is now online. Either tonight or tomorrow, an interview with Andreas Klier (Garmin-Barracuda) will complete the coverage of this stage.

If you'd like to see the photos you can click on the following link:
>> the photos of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 - Suze-la-Rousse > Sisteron
The classifications of Paris-Nice 2012 after the 6th stage
The stage classification for the 6th stage - Suze-la-Rousse > Sisteron
Here's the top 10 of this sixth stage of Paris-Nice 2012:

1/ Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) - 4h07'58"
2/ Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan)
3/ Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) - +0'14"
4/ Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale)
5/ Grega Bole (Lampre-ISD)
6/ Alexander Kristoff (Katusha Team)
7/ Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis)
8/ Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
9/ Koen de Kort (Project 1t4i)
10/ Jacopo Guarnieri (Astana)
General classification
No changes in the top 10 of the general classification:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 22h31'52"
2/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'06"
3/ Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'10"
4/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - +0'18"
5/ Simon Spilak (Katusha Team) - +0'37"
6/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - +0'39"
7/ Maxime Monfort (Radioshack-Nissan) - +0'46"
8/ Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ BigMat) - +1'06"
9/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +1'16"
10/ Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) - +1'21"
Classification by points
Luis Leon Sanchez makes his entrance in the top 5 of the classification by points but Alejandro Valverde for now keeps the corresponding green jersey:

1/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) - 74 points
2/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 67 points
3/ Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 63 points
4/ Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) - 52 points
5/ Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 50 points
King of the Mountains classification
Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) comforts his leading position in the King of the Mountains classification, especially because no other rider of the top 5 of this classification didn't take any points today:

1/ Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - 55 points
2/ Luis Angel Maté Mardones (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 20 points
3/ David Le Lay (Saur-Sojasun) - 20 points
4/ Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar) - 19 points
5/ Bart de Clercq (Lotto-Belisol Team) - 15 points
Best young rider classification
The white jersey for the best young rider remains sustainably on the shoulders of Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) who still has the same lead on the other riders of the top 5:

1/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - 22h32'31"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +2'55"
3/ Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar) - +3'30"
4/ Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) - +5'41"
5/ Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +7'07"
by Thomas Vergouwen
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| Roland TISSIER | saturday 10 March 2012 at 8:50:58