Fassa fails as McEwen takes two; Bettini back in the lead
Petacchi's train derails on tight turn
When the sprint is rough, tough, tight and twisty, there's only one person you should bank on.
Despite missing the entire spring due to a virus, speed demon Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) is just about back to his best form, winning today's crash-filled finale in Marina di Grosseto with apparent ease.
In fact, in a rare show of generosity, the 32-year-old Queenslander tried to give the stage to his fellow Aussie and loyal lead-out man, Henk Vogels, soft-pedaling in second wheel with a kilometer to go, and allowing Vogels to surreptitiously sail off the front. It was a great move, catching the others totally unawares. And as the former Navigators star pounded down the Via Eritrea in the 11 cog, he looked like he just might pull it off. But alas, it turned out to be just a few meters too far.
However, his mate McEwen was a winner in waiting, and with Fassa's silver train derailing itself in a pileup shortly beforehand, the sprint finish became elementary for the pocket rocket from Down Under, who won easily from second-placed Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu (Crédit Agricole) and Volodymyr Bileka (Discovery Channel).
"I'm sorry for Vogels, but I realized at 300 meters that the group was going to overtake him, so I launched my own sprint," McEwen told The Associated Press.
Another rider returning to the limelight was Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetics), who collected six valuable bonus seconds along the road to Marina di Grosseto and took the maglia rosa from overnight leader Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi).
Short and fast
A short stage invariably means a fast stage, and the brisk first half of Friday’s 153km race played perfectly into Bettini's hands. The Quick Step rider was just three seconds shy of the race lead at the start of the day, and collecting the six-second bonus for winning the Intergiro sprint - which he did easily - would make him the leader on the road.
With Bettini’s mission accomplished, Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Saunier Duval-Prodir) decided to hit out on his own. The stocky Spaniard, wearing socks up to his knees, never gained more than a minute, but there were five who saw his move as enticing enough to counter: Jose Rujano (Selle Italia-Colombia), Dmitriy Muravyev (Crédit Agricole), Thierry Marichal (Cofidis), Sascha Urweider (Phonak) and Thorwald Veneberg (Rabobank).
A high-speed chase saw three of the five - Marichal, Urweider and Veneberg - catching Cobo Acebo within 20km, creating a lead quartet at kilometer 98. However, with the pure sprinters having had their say for just one day this week, there was simply no way the escapees were going to ride home free, and it was gruppo compatto at 20 to go.
Silver train derails again
Entering Marina di Grosseto and approaching the first of three trips round the seaside block, the first of a number of crashes took Ryder Hesjedal (Discovery Channel) and Ruben Lobato Elvira (Saunier Duval-Prodir) out of the running, but not out of the race.
With 6km to go, it was Liquigas and Française des Jeux on front, but 2km later, Fassa finally got six carriages linked and the silver train steaming, all set to give Alessandro Petacchi a long-awaited victory - until the narrow roads and choppy corners saw the Fassa leadout fishtailing, and a touch of wheels brought down Ale-Jet and his main man Marco Velo, destroying their chances in one fell swoop. Petacchi got up unhurt, forlornly rolling across the line a few minutes later, a “Why me?” look on his face.
Most likely, it was salt in his wounds to see arch-rival McEwen so confident of winning more later on that he decided to set up the stage for Vogels. The popular 31-year-old, who returned to McEwen's team this year after a successful five-year stint in the States, would have made a thoroughly deserving winner, but fell meters short of what would have been his first grand-tour victory, eventually finishing fifth.
Regardless of what happens from here, McEwen will go into July with confidence sky-high, ever-improving form and fitness, and take comfort in the knowledge that his team is one that can challenge - and beat - Fassa Bortolo.
Coming up Saturday: Stage 7 - May 14: Grosseto - Pistoia, 211km. An unpredictable stage is on the cards for the first day of the weekend. A steep and narrow 4.5km climb pitched on the parcours less than 20km from the finish in Pistoia means it won't be one for the sprinters - unless Baden Cooke has something to do with it.
Race notes
Freddy Gonzalez (Ceramica Panaria), the mountains-classification winner in 2001 and 2003, did not start today's stage, and solid all-rounder Marlon Perez (Colombia-Selle Italia) retired after 76km. Meanwhile, Selle Italia’s Luca de Angeli, has been sacked after testing positive for the banned blood booster EPO following the Coppi-Bartali international cycling week, team manager Gianni Savio told AFP on Friday.
To see how today's stage developed, simply CLICK HERE to bring up our Live Update window.
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