Sagan Stuns Greipel As Crashes Exact Heavy Toll On Tour de France Peloton

Sagan Tdf Stage 6 In Decisive Fashion

METZ, France, July 6, 2012 (AFP) – Slovakian champion Peter Sagan claimed
his third Tour de France victory from the sixth stage Friday as a number of
yellow jersey contenders narrowly escaped crashing out of the race.

A total of three accidents took place on the 207.5 km ride from Epernay to
Metz, where race debutant Sagan powered past flagging German Andre Greipel of
Lotto in the final meters to add to his wins on the first and third stages.

“I’m very happy to have won today. Yesterday I was a little unlucky, today
I was lucky,” said Sagan, who failed to contend Thursday’s sprint after he was
caught up in a crash around 3 km from the line.

“Everything went well. I decided to take Greipel’s wheel because I knew
that if I did that no one would be able to pass me.”

It was a reduced peloton, however, that rode into the 700 meter home
straight after the day’s biggest crash, around 26 km from the finish, delayed
dozens of riders and led to at least three abandons.

Race leader Fabian Cancellara, wearing the yellow jersey since winning the
opening prologue last Saturday, realized only too late that his RadioShack
team leader Frank Schleck had been among those delayed by the chaos.

“We found out we had one rider missing and that was Frank, but already it
was too late,” said Cancellara, who retained his 7sec lead over Britain’s
Bradley Wiggins who is the main challenger to defending champion Cadel Evans,
in seventh 10s further back.

A peloton of around 50 riders, which included most of the overall
favorites including Evans and Wiggins but not world road race champion Mark
Cavendish, a favorite for the stage win, forged on regardless.

Others, like American Tom Danielson and Davide Vigano of Italy, were in no
rush to resume. After sitting or lying on the road in pain, they were forced
to pull out due to their injuries.

Cancellara admitted he had a narrow escape.

“Right next to me I had Davide Vigano and I could feel it when he went down
next to me,” added the Swiss.

“I had to put one leg on the ground and was just happy not to go down at
70km/h.”

Among the big losers were Luxembourg’s Frank Schleck (RadioShack), Thomas
Voeckler of France (Europcar), Italy’s Michele Scarponi (Lampre) and Canada’s
Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin).

All were delayed by the crash and left with a two-minute deficit to the
chasing peloton up the road ahead as they closed in on frontrunners David
Zabriskie (Garmin), Davide Malacarne (Europcar), Karsten Kroon (Saxo Bank) and
Romain Zingle (Cofidis), with Sagan emerging to prevail in the sprint for the
line in Metz.

Schleck, a third place finisher last year but an outsider because of his
lack of power in the long time trials — of which there are two this year –
virtually saw his hopes of challenging come to an end.

The Luxembourger finished 2min 09sec off the pace in a group which also
included Spain’s Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and French hope Pierre Rolland
(Europcar) and is now 2:43 off the leading pace.

The finale, meanwhile, saw a reduced group of riders battling to set up
their sprinters for the hectic finish after American David Zabriskie (Garmin),
the last survivor from an early four-man breakaway, was caught with 1300
meters remaining.

Greipel had not been expected to contend a bunch sprint after he suffered a
sore shoulder when he was caught in the first two crashes.

But after it was announced that British rival Cavendish had been left
behind, his Lotto team fired up their engines.

The German looked all set to claim his third win of this year’s race, but
had the misfortune to run out of steam as Sagan emerged from his wheel in the
closing meters.

Results from the Tour de France sixth stage, a 207.5km ride from Epernay to Metz, on Friday:

1. Peter Sagan (SVK/LIQ) 4h37min 00sec
2. André Greipel (GER/LTB) at 0:00s
3. Matthew Goss (AUS/GEC) 0:00.
4. Kenny van Hummel (NED/VAC) 0:00.
5. Juan José Haedo (ARG/SAX) 0:00.
6. Greg Henderson (NZL/LTB) 0:00.
7. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA/LAM) 0:00.
8. Luca Paolini (ITA/KAT) 0:00.
9. Daryl Impey (RSA/GEC) 0:00.
10. Brett Lancaster (AUS/GEC) 0:04.
11. Sébastien Hinault (FRA/ALM) 0:04.
12. Roy Curvers (NED/ARG) 0:04.
13. Julien Simon (FRA/SAU) 0:04.
14. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) 0:04.
15. Bernhard Eisel (AUT/SKY) 0:04.
16. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/LIQ) 0:04.
17. Marco Marcato (ITA/VAC) 0:04.
18. Andreas Kloden (GER/RSH) 0:04.
19. Samuel Sanchez (ESP/EUS) 0:04.
20. Nicolas Roche (IRL/ALM) 0:04.
21. Bradley Wiggins (GBR/SKY) 0:04.
22. Ruben Perez Moreno (ESP/EUS) 0:04.
23. Maxime Monfort (BEL/RSH) 0:04.
24. Michael Rogers (AUS/SKY) 0:04.
25. Samuel Dumoulin (FRA/COF) 0:04.
26. Jurgen Van den Broeck (BEL/LTB) 0:04.
27. Jürgen Roelandts (BEL/LTB) 0:04.
28. Peter Velits (SVK/OPQ) 0:04.
29. George Hincapie (USA/BMC) 0:04.
30. Kris Boeckmans (BEL/VAC) 0:04.
31. Egoi Martinez (ESP/EUS) 0:04.
32. Jonathan Cantwell (AUS/SAX) 0:04.
33. Tony Gallopin (FRA/RSH) 0:04.
34. Philippe Gilbert (BEL/BMC) 0:04.
35. Gorka Izagirre (ESP/EUS) 0:04.
36. Christian Knees (GER/SKY) 0:04.
37. Fabian Cancellara (SUI/RSH) 0:04.
38. Sylvain Chavanel (FRA/OPQ) 0:04.
39. Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) 0:04.
40. Mickaël Cherel (FRA/ALM) 0:04.
41. Jérôme Pineau (FRA/OPQ) 0:04.
42. Chris Froome (GBR/SKY) 0:04.
43. Kevin De Weert (BEL/OPQ) 0:04.
44. Chris Horner (USA/RSH) 0:04.
45. Jorge Azanza (ESP/EUS) 0:04.
46. Levi Leipheimer (USA/OPQ) 0:04.
47. Sébastien Minard (FRA/ALM) 0:04.
48. Jeremy Roy (FRA/FDJ) 0:04.
49. Remy Di Gregorio (FRA/COF) 0:04.
50. Haimar Zubeldia (ESP/RSH) 0:04.
51. Denis Menchov (RUS/KAT) 0:04.
52. Bert Grabsch (GER/OPQ) 0:04.
53. Vladimir Gusev (RUS/KAT) 0:04.
54. Ivan Basso (ITA/LIQ) 0:04.
55. Jérome Coppel (FRA/SAU) 0:04.
56. Eduard Vorganov (RUS/KAT) 0:04.
57. Michael Schär (SWI/BMC) 0:04.
58. Rui Costa (POR/MOV) 0:04.
59. Baden Cooke (AUS/GEC) 0:04.
60. Maxime Bouet (FRA/ALM) 0:04.
61. Jens Voigt (GER/RSH) 0:04.
62. Alessandro Vanotti (ITA/LIQ) 0:15.
63. Danilo Hondo (GER/LAM) 0:16.
64. Marcel Sieberg (GER/LTB) 0:21.
65. Michael Morkov (DEN/SAX) 0:32.
66. Marcus Burghardt (GER/BMC) 0:32.
67. Stephen Cummings (GBR/BMC) 0:32.
68. Davide Malacarne (ITA/EUC) 0:32.
69. Jean-Marc Marino (FRA/SAU) 0:32.
70. Pablo Urtasun (ESP/EUS) 0:32.
71. Karsten Kroon (NED/SAX) 0:55.
72. David Zabriskie (USA/GRM) 0:55.
73. Adam Hansen (AUS/LTB) 0:57.
74. Manuel Quinziato (ITA/BMC) 1:10.
75. Lars Ytting Bak (DEN/LTB) 1:20.
76. Simon Gerrans (AUS/GEC) 1:22.
77. Stuart O’Grady (AUS/GEC) 1:22.
78. Rein Taaramae (EST/COF) 0:04.
79. Romain Zingle (BEL/COF) 1:39.
80. Michele Scarponi (ITA/LAM) 2:09.
81. Janez Brajkovic (SLO/AST) 2:09.
82. Frank Schleck (LUX/RSH) 2:09.
83. Cyril Gautier (FRA/EUC) 2:09.
84. Sergio Paulinho (POR/SAX) 2:09.
85. Pierre Rolland (FRA/EUC) 2:09.
86. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) 2:09.
87. Patrick Gretsch (GER/ARG) 2:09.
88. Bauke Mollema (NED/RAB) 2:09.
89. Arthur Vichot (FRA/FDJ) 2:09.
90. Christophe Riblon (FRA/ALM) 2:09.
91. Chris Anker Sorensen (DEN/SAX) 2:09.
92. Yauheni Hutarovich (BLR/FDJ) 2:09.
93. Giovanni Bernaudeau (FRA/EUC) 2:09.
94. Sylvester Szmyd (POL/LIQ) 2:09.
95. Jelle Vanendert (BEL/LTB) 2:09.
96. Nick Nuyens (BEL/SAX) 2:09.
97. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR/SKY) 2:09.
98. Jean Christophe Peraud (FRA/ALM) 2:09.
99. Matthieu Ladagnous (FRA/FDJ) 2:09.
100. Rafael Valls (ESP/VAC) 2:09.
101. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV) 2:09.
102. Marco Marzano (ITA/LAM) 2:09.
103. Martin Velits (SVK/OPQ) 2:09.
104. Amaël Moinard (FRA/BMC) 2:09.
105. Nicolas Edet (FRA/COF) 2:09.
106. Tony Martin (GER/OPQ) 2:09.
107. Kristjan Koren (SLO/LIQ) 2:18.
108. Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (ESP/MOV) 2:21.
109. Blel Kadri (FRA/ALM) 3:13.
110. Robert Gesink (NED/RAB) 3:31.
111. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/RAB) 3:31.
112. Borut Boic (SLO/AST) 3:52.
113. Michael Albasini (SUI/GEC) 4:53.
114. Sébastian Langeveld (NED/GEC) 4:53.
115. Sandy Casar (FRA/FDJ) 5:11.
116. Koen de Kort (NED/ARG) 6:02.
117. Albert Timmer (NED/ARG) 6:02.
118. Andreï Kashechkin (KAZ/AST) 6:02.
119. Tom Veelers (NED/ARG) 6:02.
120. Joan Horrach (ESP/KAT) 6:02.
121. Yuriy Krivtsov (UKR/LAM) 6:02.
122. Mark Renshaw (AUS/RAB) 6:02.
123. Mark Cavendish (GBR/SKY) 6:02.
124. Pierrick Fedrigo (FRA/FDJ) 6:02.
125. Yaroslav Popovych (UKR/RSH) 6:02.
126. Andriy Grivko (UKR/AST) 6:02.
127. Pieter Weening (NED/GEC) 6:02.
128. Cedric Pineau (FRA/FDJ) 6:02.
129..Johnny Hoogerland (NED/VAC) 6:02.
130. Thomas Voeckler (FRA/EUC) 6:02.
131. Yohann Gene (FRA/EUC) 6:02.
132. Daniel Oss (ITA/LIQ) 6:02.
133. David Moncoutié (FRA/COF) 6:02.
134. Giampaolo Caruso (ITA/KAT) 6:02.
135. Oscar Freire (ESP/KAT) 6:02.
136. Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP/RAB) 6:02.
137. Vincent Jérôme (FRA/EUC) 6:02.
138. Dries Devenyns (BEL/OPQ) 7:00.
139. Anthony Roux (FRA/FDJ) 8:04.
140. Anthony Delaplace (FRA/SAU) 8:04.
141. Matthew Lloyd (AUS/LAM) 8:04.
142. Vasil Kiryienka (BLR/MOV) 10:01.
143. Jan Ghyselinck (BEL/COF) 10:01.
144. Ivan Gutierrez (ESP/MOV) 10:01.
145. Guillaume Levarlet (FRA/SAU) 10:01.
146. Yann Huguet (FRA/ARG) 10:01.
147. Gustav Erik Larsson (SWE/VAC) 10:50.
148. Fabrice Jeandesboz (FRA/SAU) 10:50.
149. Aliaksandr Kuschynski (BLR/KAT) 13:24.
150. Dmitriy Fofonov (KAZ/AST) 13:24.
151. Cyril Lemoine (FRA/SAU) 13:24.
152. Johannes Fröhlinger (GER/ARG) 13:24.
153. Mathieu Sprick (FRA/ARG) 13:24.
154. Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA/SAU) 13:24.
155. Fredrik Kessiakoff (SWE/AST) 13:24.
156. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO/AST) 13:24.
157. Nicki Sorensen (DEN/SAX) 13:24.
158. Yukiya Arashiro (JPN/EUC) 13:24.
159. Maxim Iglinskiy (KAZ/AST) 13:24.
160. Grega Bole (SLO/LAM) 13:24.
161. Alexander Vinokourov (KAZ/AST) 13:24.
162. Anders Lund (DEN/SAX) 13:24.
163. Hubert Dupont (FRA/ALM) 13:24.
164. Simone Stortoni (ITA/LAM) 13:24.
165. Yury Trofimov (RUS/KAT) 13:24.
166. Brice Feillu (FRA/SAU) 13:24.
167. Christophe Kern (FRA/EUC) 13:24.
168. Lieuwe Westra (NED/VAC) 13:24.
169. Vladimir Karpets (RUS/MOV) 13:24.
170. Richie Porte (AUS/SKY) 13:24.
171. Robert Hunter (RSA/GRM) 13:24.
172. Christian Vande Velde (USA/GRM) 13:24.
173. Luis Ángel Maté (ESP/COF) 13:24.
174. Julien Fouchard (FRA/COF) 13:24.
175. Laurens ten Dam (NED/RAB) 13:24.
176. Daniel Martin (IRL/GRM) 13:24.
177. Federico Canuti (ITA/LIQ) 13:24.
178. Dominik Nerz (GER/LIQ) 13:24.
179. Imanol Erviti (ESP/MOV) 13:24.
180. Rubén Plaza (ESP/MOV) 13:24.
181. Ryder Hesjedal (CAN/GRM) 13:24.
182. David Millar (GBR/GRM) 13:24.
183. Tyler Farrar (USA/GRM) 13:24.
184. Maarten Wijnants (BEL/RAB) 13:24.
185. Rob Ruijgh (NED/VAC) 13:24.
186. Gorka Verdugo (ESP/EUS) 13:24.
187. Francis de Greef (BEL/LTB) 13:24.
188. Bram Tankink (NED/RAB) 13:24.
189. Amets Txurruka (ESP/EUS) 13:24.
190. Johan Van Summeren (BEL/GRM) 16:12.
. Mikel Astarloza (ESP/EUS) Retired
. Davide Vigano (ITA/LAM) Retired
. Tom Danielson (USA/GRM) Retired
. Wout Poels (NED/VAC) Retired

Class standings after the sixth stage of the Tour de France, a 207.5km ride from Epernay to Metz on Friday:

Points:
1. Peter Sagan (SVK/LIQ) 209 pts
2. Matthew Goss (AUS/GEC) 178
3. André Greipel (GER/LTB) 167
4. Mark Cavendish (GBR/SKY) 129
5. Alessandro Petacchi (ITA/LAM) 109
6. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR/SKY) 95
7. Tom Veelers (NED/ARG) 76
8. Fabian Cancellara (SUI/RSH) 74
9. Kenny van Hummel (NED/VAC) 69
10. Juan José Haedo (ARG/SAX) 68

King of Mountains:
1. Michael Morkov (DEN/SAX) 9 pts
2. Ivan Basso (ITA/LIQ) 2
3. Peter Sagan (SVK/LIQ) 2
4. Anthony Delaplace (FRA/SAU) 2
5. David Moncoutié (FRA/COF) 2
6. David Zabriskie (USA/GRM) 1
7. Pablo Urtasun (ESP/EUS) 1
8. Tony Gallopin (FRA/RSH) 1
9. Sébastien Minard (FRA/ALM) 1

Team stage:
1. Orica – GreenEdge 13h51:04.
2. Lotto at 0:00.
3. Vacansoleil 0:04.
4. Liquigas 0:04.
5. Katusha 0:04.

Team overall:
1. Sky 88h08:22.
2. RadioShack at 0:04.
3. BMC 0:06.
4. Omega Pharma 0:13.
5. Liquigas 0:25.
6. Katusha 0:34.
7. Vacansoleil 0:46.
8. Euskaltel 1:51.
9. Cofidis 2:23.
10. Orica – GreenEdge 2:26.
11. AG2R La Mondiale 2:49.
12. Lotto 3:30.
13. FDJ 6:09.
14. Saxo Bank 7:28.
15. Europcar 7:46.
16. Movistar 8:18.
17. Saur – Sojasun 9:20.
18. Rabobank 10:00.
19. Astana 12:43.
20. Lampre 16:19.
21. Argos 27:29.
22. Garmin 35:05.

Best young riders (stage):
1. Peter Sagan (SVK/LIQ) 4h37:00.
2. Kris Boeckmans (BEL/VAC) at 0:04.
3. Tony Gallopin (FRA/RSH) 0:04.
4. Gorka Izagirre (ESP/EUS) 0:04.
5. Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) 0:04.

Best young riders (overall):
1. Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) 29h22:46.
2. Peter Sagan (SVK/LIQ) at 0:09.
3. Rein Taaramae (EST/COF) 0:12.
4. Tony Gallopin (FRA/RSH) 1:28.
5. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR/SKY) 2:06.
6. Gorka Izagirre (ESP/EUS) 2:30.
7. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) 2:42.
8. Rafael Valls (ESP/VAC) 2:56.
9. Davide Malacarne (ITA/EUC) 3:52.
10. Kris Boeckmans (BEL/VAC) 3:53.

Aggressivity (stage):
David Zabriskie (USA/GRM)