41rst Tirreno - Adriatico
Stage 6 San Benedetto - Torricella Circuit 182 Kms.
Leonardo Bertagnolli (Cofidis) attacked at 800 metres to win the sixth stage of the Tirreno Adriatico in Torrcella Sicura after 179kms. Alessandro Petachhi (Milram) followed in 2nd followed by Terzo Ricco (Saunier Duval) 3rd with Pozzato, Astarloa, Nocentini. Once again it was the peloton catching a long and determined break before the finish that set up the final sprint.  Thomas Dekker arrived in the bunch with Rabobank active during the day chasing down any escapes that challenged his leadership, gained after the time trial on stage 5 yesterday.

The first attack of the day was by Perez Rodrigues at the 17km into the stage, but the early break was brought in a few kilometres. The next attempt was at km 38 Gilbert, Paolini, Iannetti, Rast, Schreck, Arekeev, Mazzanti, Leukemans, Devolder, Lopez Garci'a, Monnerais and Trentin which gained little on the Rabobank led peloton and was brought back to the group at the 3 km up the road.

An attack at 55 km by Baliani (Panaria), Bellotti (Crédit Agricole), Wall (Lpr) and Guesdon (Francaise DES Jeux) escaped with Spezialetti (Liquigas) and Muraglia in chase; nine kilometres later the duo were captured by the group as the peloton chased the quintet who passed through Villa Vomano a minute in the lead with the sprint points collected by Spezialetti, Baliani, Wall, Bellotti and Guesdon in that order. The gap of the quintet stretched to 1:38 but the Rabobank led bunch left no doubt that they had every intention of gathering the riders for a bunch sprint on the last 14.5 km circuit in Torricella. By the second circuit the lead is closing with Emfikin and Facci attacking to bridge to the quintet.

Thomas Dekker with the Rabobank guard... photoc. Fotoreporter Serotti

In the third circuit Emfikin makes the catch of Vicioso, Pellizotti  who were dropped; and this new trio chases Pellizotti, Gutierrez Cataluna and Garcia. By the fourth circuit Efimkin, Lopez Garci'a, Cataluna, Vicioso and Pellizotti approach the last GPM with only 14 seconds in hand, the break is consumed as the peloton enters the fifth and final circuit together.

A few more futile attacks as the sprinters teams prepare for the finish... Ivanov attacks and Hincapie leads the peloton in the capture. Then Haselbacher and Gentili gaining little ground before the sprinters teams bring them back before the finish at 800 metres Bertagnolli launches his attack, he is irresistible with Petacchi, Ricco and Pozzato denied at the line.

Thomas Dekker arrives in the group surrounded by his Rabobank team who performed strongly today in protecting his lead.

Peloton strings out in the final circuit   photoc. Fotoreporter Serotti

CSC Coments: The Rabobank team managed to keep control of the race on the altered route for the penultimate stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico. The final five laps did include a fairly steep climb but the rivals to Thomas Dekker's leader's jersey didn't get a chance to escape.

In stead Leonardo Bertagnolli (Cofidis) launched an attack during the final kilometer and just managed to keep the somewhat reduced peloton behind him. Karsten Kroon led Team CSC in 16th place.

"There were only about 30 riders who finished together and we had Basso, Kroon and Arvesen in this group, so it's definitely satisfactory and it means we keep our positions in the overall standings. On our part it's a shame that the mountain stage was cancelled today because it could've given us the opportunity to make some overall changes. But it wasn't meant to be. On a positive note the stage today was probably a better preparation for Milano-Sanremo,” said sports director Scott Sunderland after the 179-kilometer stage from San Benedetto del Tronto to Torricella Sicura. 

Leonardo!           photoc. Fotoreporter Serotti

Stage 6 San Benedetto - Torricella
182 Kms.       38.907 Km/h
Results:
1  BERTAGNOLLI Leonardo  COFIDIS 4:40'40 0 10
2  PETACCHI Alessandro TEAM MILRAM 4:40'40 0 6
3  RICCO' Riccardo  SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR 4:40'40 0 4
4   POZZATO Filippo QUICK STEP-INNERGETIC 4:40'40 0
5  ASTARLOA Igor 76 ESP BAR BARLOWORLD 4:40'40 0
6  NOCENTINI Rinaldo 77 ITA ASA ACQUA E SAPONE 
7  KHALILOV Mikhaylo 75 UKR LPR TEAM L.P.R. 4:40'40 0
8   REBELLIN Davide 71 ITA GST GEROLSTEINER 4:40'40 0
9  ARREITUNANDIA QUINTERO Pedro    BARLOWORLD 
10 HUSHOVD Thor  CREDIT AGRICOLE 
11  MAZZANTI   CERAMICA PANARIA-NAVIGAR 
12  BALLAN Alessandro  LAMPRE-FONDITAL 
13  BERTOGLIATI Rubens   SAUNIER DUVAL-PRO  
14   SAVOLDELLI Paolo  DISCOVERY CHANNEL 
15 DEKKER Thomas RABOBANK 4:40'40 0
16  KROON Karsten  TEAM CSC 4:40'40 0
17  JAKSCHE Jorg  LIBERTY SEGUROS-WURTH 4:40'40 0
18  GARZELLI Stefano LIQUIGAS 4:40'40 0
19  ALBIZU LIZASO Joseba  EUSKALTEL-  4:40'40 0
20 SABIDO Hugo BARLOWORLD 
21  HOSTE Leif  DISCOVERY CHANNEL 
22  MOLETTA Andrea  GEROLSTEINER 4:40'40 0
23   LASTRAS GARCIA P CAISSE D'EPARGNE  
24  HINCAPIE George DISCOVERY CHANNEL 4:40'40 0
25  BERNUCCI Lorenzo  T-MOBILE TEAM 4:40'40 0
26  BASSO Ivan TEAM CSC 4:40'40 0
27  BOOGERD Michael   RABOBANK 4:40'40 0
28   ARVESEN Kurt Asle   TEAM CSC 4:40'40 0
29  KOPP David  GEROLSTEINER 4:40'40 0
30   ZABEL Erik  TEAM MILRAM 4:40'40 0
31  GRABSCH Bert   PHONAK HEARING  4:40'40 0
32  ASCANI Luca  NATURINO-SAPORE DI M 4:40'40 0
33  KOHL Bernhard  T-MOBILE   4:40'40 0
34  TANKINK Bram QUICK STEP-INNER  4:40'40 0
35  WEGMANN Fabian  GEROLSTEINER 4:40'40 0
36  GUTIERREZ CATALUNA Ignacio  PHONAK   4:40'40 0
=================== :12 ===============
37  ROJAS GIL Jose Joaquin LIBERTY SEGUROS 4:40'52 12
38  DANIELSON  DISCOVERY CHANNEL 4:40'52 12
39   VAN IMPE Kevin  QUICK STEP-INNERGETIC 4:40'54 14
40  BAGUET Serge  QUICK STEP-INNERGETIC 4:40'54 14
41  SOLER Mauricio  ACQUA E SAPONE 4:40'59 19
42  ZABALLA GUTIERREZ C CAISSE D'EPARGNE 4:41'03 23
43  LOPEZ GARCIA EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI 
44  FIGUERAS Giuliano LAMPRE-FONDITAL 
45   ISASI FLORES Inaki   EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI 
46  PINOTTI Marco SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR 
47   PENA GRISALES Victor Hugo PHONAK   4:41'03 23
48   IVANOV Serguei T-MOBILE TEAM 4:41'09 29
49 TRENTIN Guido 75   SAUNIER DUVAL-PRO 4:41'09 29
50   PEREZ MORENO Ruben  EUSKALTEL-  4:41'11 31

Mountains Classification:
1 ROJAS GIL Jose Joaquin  LIBERTY SEGUROS-WURTH   11
2  CONTRINI Daniele  TEAM L.P.R. 8
3  GUTIERREZ CATALUNA Ignacio  PHONAK   7
4  PRIAMO Matteo  CERAMICA PANARIA-NAVIGARE 7
5  BALLAN Alessandro LAMPRE-FONDITAL 5
6  EFIMKIN Vladimir CAISSE D'EPARGNE-ILLES BALEARS 5

Points Classification:
1 84 NOR19780118 HUSHOVD Thor  CREDIT AGRICOLE 27
2 1 ESP19760215 FREIRE  Oscar   RABOBANK 25
3 145 ITA19791106 BALLAN Alessandro LAMPRE/FONDITAL 25
4 231 ITA19740103 PETACCHI Alessandro   MILRAM 25
5 226 UKR19750703 KHALILOV Mikhaylo TEAM L.P.R. 24
6 232 GER19700707 ZABEL Erik 70   MILRAM 20
7 204 ITA19830901 RICCO' Riccardo 83   SAUNIER DUVAL 18
8 214 SUI19810318 CANCELLARA Fabian TEAM CSC 17

Teams Classification:
1 DSC DISCOVERY CHANNEL 69:29'39 0
2 CSC TEAM CSC 69:29'56 17
3 LSW LIBERTY SEGUROS-WURTH 69:32'19 2'40
4 GST GEROLSTEINER 69:32'37 2'58
5 PHO PHONAK HEARING SYSTEM 69:33'13 3'34

General Classification
Totale Km 942,450 Media 40.698 Km/h
1 DEKKER Thomas 84 NED RAB RABOBANK 23:09'24 0
2  JAKSCHE Jorg LIBERTY SEGUROS-WURTH 23:09'38 14
3  BALLAN Alessandro LAMPRE-FONDITAL 23:09'44 20
4  SAVOLDELLI Paolo DISCOVERY   23:10'04 40
5  BOOGERD Michael  RABOBANK 23:10'10 46
6  BERTAGNOLLI Leonardo  COFIDIS 23:10'18 54
7  BASSO Ivan  TEAM CSC 23:10'18 54
8  KROON Karsten  TEAM CSC 23:10'23 59
9  DANIELSON Thomas  DISCOVERY   23:10'23 59
============== 1:00 ================
10 HINCAPIE George 73 DISCOVERY   23:10'25 1'01
11  ARVESEN Kurt Asle  TEAM CSC 23:10'39 1'15
12  REBELLIN Davide  GEROLSTEINER 23:10'41 1'17
13   BERTOGLIATI R. SAUNIER DUVAL  23:10'42 1'18
14  NOCENTINI Rinaldo ACQUA E SAPONE 23:10'48 1'24
15  GRABSCH Bert  PHONAK  23:10'52 1'28
16  SABIDO Hugo BARLOWORLD 23:10'54 1'30
17  GARZELLI Stefano LIQUIGAS 23:10'56 1'32
18  WEGMANN Fabian GEROLSTEINER 23:11'02 1'38
19 ZABEL Erik 70 MILRAM 23:11'05 1'41
20 MOLETTA Andrea  GEROLSTEINER 23:11'06 1'42
21 PETACCHI Alessandro   MILRAM 23:11'10 1'46
22 BERNUCCI Lorenzo T-MOBILE TEAM 23:11'11 1'47
23 ARREITUNANDIA QUINTERO BARLOWORLD 23:11'11 1'47
24 KOHL Bernhard  T-MOBILE TEAM 23:11'14 1'50
25  GUTIERREZ CATALUNA Ignacio  PHONAK   23:11'15 1'51
26  PENA GRISALES Victor Hugo  PHO PHONAK   23:11'22 1'58
================= 2:00 ===============
27  RICCO' Riccardo SAUNIER DUVAL  23:11'41 2'17
28 ZABALLA GUTIERREZ C CAISSE D'EPARGNE-I 23:11'45 2'21
29  ASCANI Luca   NATURINO-SAPORE DI MARE 23:11'46 2'22
30 HUSHOVD Thor 78 NOR C.A CREDIT AGRICOLE 23:11'46 2'22
31 ISASI FLORES Inaki  EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI 23:11'53 2'29
32  LEIPHEIMER Levi GEROLSTEINER 23:11'58 2'34
33 RIGHI Daniele LAMPRE-FONDITAL 23:11'59 2'35
34 VICIOSO ARCOS Angel LIBERTY SEGUROS- 23:12'00 2'36
35 LOPEZ GARCIA David  EUSKALTEL  23:12'04 2'40
36 POZZATO Filippo QUICK STEP-INNERGETIC 23:12'05 2'41
37 MAZZANTI Luca CERAMICA PANARIA-NAV  23:12'07 2'43
38 TRENTIN Guido SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR 23:12'09 2'45
================= 3:00 =================
39 HESJEDAL Ryder PHONAK HEARING   23:12'27 3'03
40 LE MEVEL Christophe CREDIT AGRICOLE 23:12'36 3'12
41 LASTRAS GARCIA P. CAISSE D'EPARGNE 23:12'59 3'35
42 GASPERONI Christian NATURINO-SAPORE   23:13'07 3'43
43 GILBERT Philippe FRANCAISE DES JEUX 23:13'09 3'45
44  AREKEEV Alexander  ACQUA E SAPONE 23:13'10 3'46
45 GENTILI Massimiliano NATURINO-SAPORE DI  23:13'16 3'52
================== 4:00 =================
46 IVANOV Serguei T-MOBILE TEAM 23:13'24 4'00
47 KHALILOV  UKR LPR TEAM L.P.R. 23:13'25 4'01
48 ERVITI Imanol  CAISSE D'EPARGNE-ILLES B 23:13'57 4'33
49  KOPP David GEROLSTEINER 23:14'06 4'42
50   KRIVTSOV Yuriy  AG2R PREVOYANCE 23:14'19 4'55