March 12/16 16:13 pm - Paris Nice: Stage 6, Duchesne in break, Leads Climber GC

Posted by Editoress on 03/12/16
 

Thomas misses stage win but seizes Paris-Nice lead

Led out by an impressive Team Sky train in the climb to La Madone d'Utelle, Geraint Thomas (Sky) took the reins of Paris-Nice in the 177km sixth stage to La Madone d'Utelle. The Welshman came so close to taking the stage laurels but was overtaken on the line by Russia's Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha), the former Tour of Romandy winner, who took the day's honours ahead of Thomas and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff). As expected, most of the action took place on the last ascent, when Team Sky first stretched the bunch before Contador blew it apart with several blistering attacks. Their combined efforts were too much for Australian yellow jersey holder Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), who was dropped in the penultimate climb and finished 20 minutes adrift.

Eight in the lead
The start was given at 12:11 to 157 riders. In the first climb of the day, Cote d Gattieres (2nd cat, km 10), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto) was in the front, ahead of polka-dot jersey holder Jesus Herrada (Movistar). After several attempts, launched notably by Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), a group of seven riders emerged after 25 kilometres. They were Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre), Cyril Gautier (AG2R),  Nikki Terpstra (Etixx), Gregory Rast (Trek-Segafredo), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), Florian Vachon (Fortuneo) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence). American Andrew Talanksy (Cannondale) and De Gendt chased behind the break and caught them at kilometre 36 and 45 respectively. The lead of the nine never went over 2:25 (Km 25). 

Duchesne takes the polka-dot jersey
De Gendt caught the lead just on time to finish first at the top of Cote de Coursegoules (km 50) and launch a battle with Duchesne for the polka-dot jersey. The sprint in Coursegoules went to Terpstra. In Cote de la Sigale (Km 91), Siskevicius and Rast lost touch with the rest of the break. The Cote d'Ascros (1st cat.) was even more merciless to the bunch, which blew apart as the Tinkoff team-mates of Alberto Contador kept setting the pace. Talansky crashed and was forced out in the long descent towards Gilette (Km 130) as the leading group split. Duchesne, Terpstra and Vachon broke clear while Grmay, De Gendt and Gautier lost ground. Duchesne then went on his own (km 141) to snatch more KOM points on Cote de Levens (2nd cat) and secure the polka-dot jersey. As his Tinkoff team-mates had led the chase from the gun, Alberto Contador made his intentions clear by sprinting to snatch a bonus of two seconds in the intermediate sprint of Levens (km 146.5).

Stage honours for Zakarin
In Cote de Duranus, as Duchesne picked seven more KOM points, Team Sky seized the reins of the peloton and raised the tempo, dropping race leader Michael Matthews, who could not hold the frantic pace and reached the top 45 seconds adrift. Stage 5 winner Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) also lost ground early in the climb. Sky, led by Nicholas Roche, kept stretching the leading bunch before Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) took over, his leader Contador in his wake. EL Pistolero attacked twice with 6 km to go to blow the group apart. Sergio Henao (Sky) and Geraint Thomas (Sky) managed to stay with him. They were later joined by Richie Porte (BMC) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and the five were left to battle it our for stage victory. Behind them, other team leaders like Romain Bardet (AG2R) or Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) never managed to bridge the gap. Contador jumped first in the final 300 metres and Thomas countered, but both finally had to bow to Zakarin, who had the final say.

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