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Contador charges off the front on "Ventoux's little sister" to take control of Paris-Nice.
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There’s seemingly no one who’s capable of stopping Alberto Contador through the first weeks of the 2009 season.
The Spanish climber dropped arch-rival Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) on the mountain dubbed Mont Ventoux’s “little sister” to win Friday’s sixth stage and take back the overall lead at Paris-Nice. Contador, winner of the opening time trial in Amilly on Sunday, bolted away from the pack on the snow-covered, 1600m Montagne de Lure summit to win for the fourth time this year.
Overnight leader Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) couldn’t match the speeds and forfeited the yellow jersey, finishing nearly two minutes off Contador’s pace.
Head start to Lure
The hilly and demanding profile of the stage cried out for an early break and it didn’t take long for the attacks to come.
Stage 6 Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to La Montagne de Lure 182.5 km (113.4 miles)
GC Leader: Alberto Contador (Astana)
Stage winner: Contador in 4:47:46
Stage winner's average speed: 38.05 kph (23.64 mph)
Up next: Stage 7 is 191 km from Manosque to Fayence. The route includes ten categorized climbs, finishing atop the category three climb to the village of Fayence. The race concludes Sunday with a 119km hilly circuit starting and ending in Nice.
2009 Stage winners:
Stage 1: Alberto Contador (Astana)
Stage 2: Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam)
Stage 3: Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step)
Stage 4: Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream)
Stage 5: Jeremy Roy (Française des Jeux)
Stage 6: Alberto Contador (Astana)
The day’s main move was forged in the opening 10km, with Romain Feillu (Agritubel), Mickael Delage (Silence-Lotto), Javier Aramendia and Aitor Pérez (Euskaltel), Niki Terpstra (Milram), Cyril Lemoine (Skil-Shimano), Christophe Riblon (Ag2r) and Sébastien Turgot (Bouygues Telecom) peeling away. Yesterday’s winner, Jérémy Roy (FDJeux) gave chase to latch on to the leaders at about 30km.
Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues) hit the deck very hard and was transported to a local hospital, putting an abrupt end to his strong start of the 2009 season. X-rays later revealed a broken clavicle.
The former yellow jersey holder of the Tour de France in 2004 started the day 16th overall after finishing second in Thursday’s fifth stage.
Astana kept the break on a relatively short leash, keeping the gap under three minutes at the Cat. 2 Côte de Ferrassières at 78km.
Astana was leaving nothing to chase and whittled down the gap to one minute coming over the Mort d’Imbert climb at 141km. And that was all she wrote.
With the breakaway swept up, Tony Martin (Columbia-Highroad) bolted out of the pack to take points over the third-category Cote des Mourres at 158.5km to defend his lead in the climber’s jersey.
From there, the climbers took over and it was fireworks to the summit.
Up the Lure
Sébastien Joly (FDJeux), the French rider who survived testicular cancer, made a brave run at 15km, but there was no stopping the inevitable.
Euskatel-Euskadi set a blistering pace on the lower sections of the climb to bust up the peloton and reel in the French solo flier.
Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) couldn’t wait any longer and attacked with 11km to go, a move to put pressure on Astana and take it off his teammate Schleck.
Yaroslav Popovych, third overall last year at Paris-Nice, was impressive at the front of the leaders, with Contador right on his wheel. That pressure eliminated second-place rider Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank) and David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream).
Vladimir Efimkin (Ag2r) reacted with 8.5km to go and Contador turned the screws to distance Chavanel.
David Pérez (Caisse d’Epargne) accelerated with 8km to go, drawing out Contador and Schleck.
Tomorrow’s stage
The 67th Paris-Nice continues Saturday with the 191km stage from Manosque to Fayence. The potential leg-buster features no less than 10 rated climbs, including the Cat. 1 Col de Bourigaille with 30km to go.
The stage finishes atop a third-category hill at 2.1km at 5 percent, ideal for … Contador?
