93rd Giro d'Italia - Stage 6
Into the Mountains - Australia's Matt Lloyd opens his
proTour account winning solo in Carrara after 121 kilometers on the attack!
© 210
Gazzetta dello Sport
2010 Giro d'Italia
Jersey Leaders - Stage 6
Maglia Rosa: Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas/Doimo
Points: Jerome Pineau Quick Step
KOM: Paul Vos Milram
U26: Valerio Agnoli Liquigas/Doimo
Team: Liquigas/Doimo
Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma/Lotto) added another victory to the Australian
account in a solo victory on the first mountains stage of the Giro. For the 26
year old rider it is his most prestigious win of his 3 year pro career only one
week ahead of his 27th birthday (May 24).
Lloyd attacked daylong break mate Swiss rider Rubens Bertogliati on the final climb with
two kilometers from the summit opening a gap of over a minute. Bertogliati
held on narrowly defying the main group to finish to finish second at 1:04
Vittoria Matthew Lloyd! Photo © 2010 Fotoreporter
Sirotti
Danilo Hondo of of Lampre/Frarnese Vini won the mass sprint of 88 riders to
take third.
Lloyd also catapulted into the Maglia Verde of climber taking two of the
three KOM on offer during the break, Paul Voss of Milram follows the Australian
at 3 points with Bertogliati third.
The rest of the peloton finished in groups of at 4, 6, 10, 11, and 16
minutes as the mountains took their first toll on the riders legs and time gaps.
However, there was little change to the top 10 on the General Classification.
Lloyd and Bertogliati went on the attack after 45 kilometers and built up a
lead of 5:45 that maxed out as they flew through the intermediate sprint in
Aulla with 50 km to go. Behind Team Liquigas led the parade of the peloton with
little concern for the duo ahead as they were no threat to their teammate and
race leader Vincenzo Nibali.
Tyler Farrar of Garmin Transitions made the leap into the red jersey of
points leader having grabbed third in the Aulla intermediate sprint over
rivals Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Wouter Weylandt of Quick Step.
Stage 6: Fidenza - Marina di Carrara 166 km
The stage got underway just after noon, with 106 riders taking the
start; after 30 kilometers the Liquigas led peloton was all together. Attacks
got under way shortly after with a group of 8 that included Anthony
Ravard, Daniele Righi, Columbia's Marco Pinotti and Adam Hansen among others the
octet ran into some tough resistance only able to open a gap of 20 seconds and
were back in the fold six kilometers later.
raphic © 210 Gazzetta dello Sport
Matthew Lloyd and Rubens Bertogliati seemed to gain the approval of the
Liquigas led mob when they attacked opening a minutes gap that the two drove to
3:56 as they approached the climb of the Cat. 2 Passo Del Brattello, over the
summit at 77 kilometers the two gained their maximum gap as the Aussie led his
Swiss companion taking the max points on the climb.
Colnago/d'Angelo lad Stefano Pirazzi followed denying KOM leader Paul
Voss the points as the peloton followed at 5 minutes. On the descent Guilluame
Bonnafond and Paolo Tiralongo tangled leading to the abandonment of both riders.
Lloyd leads on the climb of Passo Brattello Photo © 2010 Fotoreporter
Sirotti
With 56 km to go the two continued to work well together to opening their gap
to 5:48... back in the pack, finally the bells began to ring and Liquigas picked
up the pace. through the intermediate sprint in Aulla Bertogliati led Lloyd
as the gap slowly started to come down to 5:15. Tyler Farrar led the peloton
through the hot sprint taking key points in his hunt for the red jersey of the
points contest besting current leader Graeme Brown.
The hunt was on now, but the duo proved more than able to resist the chase
over the Spolverina with 22 km to go Lloyd attacked ahead of Bertogliati to take
the points but waited to lead through the descent. Behind an attack of six
riders was soon reduced to four following at 4:35.
The four Tunarrosa Sarmiento (Acqua & Sapone), Johann Tschopp (Bbox), Katusha
duo Evgeny Petrov and Sergei Klimov made a serious effort with
Petrov leading over the summit to take the last of the KOM points with the
peloton on their heels at 25 seconds.
Lloyd took the con on the descent after he was joined by Rubens, the two
continued their two man time trial to evade capture and at this point it looked
like they had a good chance of sharing the victory. Starting the climb our duo
still held on to 4 minutes on the first chasers.
With 3 km to the summit the duo had just over 3 minutes on the chase and 3:50
on the Maglia Rosa gruppo, behind the peloton had shattered into chasing groups
as most of the sprinters were dropped. .
starting the final climb of the Cat. 3 Bedizzano our two optimists
still had over two minutes on the chasers and 2:20 on Alessandro Petacchi who
launched a counter attack with 20 km to go. Lloyd was clearly the stronger
of the two on the ascent. Behind the chase had closed to 1:22 mid climb with the
first chase group, then Petacchi a minute adrift followed by of the Nibali
group.
A lightning attack by Quick Step's Dario Cataldo caught and passed the three
who chased him down; and we had four chasers.
Matthew Lloyd attacked at 2 km from the summit, dropping Rubens Bertogliati,
leading by 27 seconds over the summit. Tshopp led over the summit at 1:42
with Petrov and Saramiento.
With 7 km to go Matt Lloyd led the Bertogliati by 32 seconds as the peloton
closed in on the three chasers who were caught with 3 km to go.... But not our
two outriders.... who proved to be very determined in their mission.
Into the finish Lloyd's drive was complete as he rode onto the final 500
meters with his head down as he crossed the line he finally sat up to raise his
hands on high to celebrate his win with a look of exhaustion on his face.
Rubens Bertogliati finishes ahead of the mass sprint Photo © 2010 Fotoreporter
Sirotti
Rubens Bertogliati fought on as the front of the peloton led by the sprinters
teams hunted him down; but the 31 year old rider from Lugano, Switzerland looked
over his shoulder and finished nine seconds ahead of the mass sprint. A great
performance by the rider in his tenth year as a pro. He is a former Swiss time
trial champion (2009) and wore the yellow jersey at the tour de France for two
days in 2002 after winning stage 1.
Lampre's German sprinter Danilo Hondo proved to have the fastest legs in the
sprint out powering Colnago's Manuel Belletti and Filippo Pozzato who started
the sprint first.
Stage 6 Results (top 10)
Fidenza - Marina di Carrara
166 km - 4:24:20 - 39.268 km/h.
1 Matthew Lloyd AUS Omega Pharma/Lotto
4:24:20 B-24"
2 Rubens Bertogliati SUI Androni Giocattoli 1:06 B-18"
3 Danilo Hondo GER Lampre/Farnese Vini -1:15 B-8"
4 Manuel Belletti ITA Colnago - 1:15
5 Filippo Pozzato ITA Katusha - 1:15
6 William Bonnet FRA Bouygues Telecom - 1:15
7 Sacha Modolo ITA Colnago - 1:15
8 Vasil Kiriyienka BLR Caisse d'Epargne - 1:15
9 Alexander Efimkin RUS Ag2r La Mondiale - 1:15
10 Baden Cooke AUS Saxo Bank - 1:15
Tomorrow's stage is one more tough bugger from Carrara to Montalcino over 215
kilometers with the gravel sections of the Bianche Strada... read a more
detailed stage preview in
Giles Belbin's
Parcours Preview Week 1
Stage 7
Carrara - Montalcino, 215km
raphic © 210 Gazzetta dello Sport
Giles Belbin's
Parcours Preview Week 1
Giles Belbin's
Parcours Preview Week 2
93rd Giro
d'Italia - Favorites Preview
2010 Giro
d'Italia Team & Rider Start List
2010 Giro
d'Italia - At a Glance
93rd Giro
d'Italia - Start List
Stage 5 Report
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