Cavendish wins sprint, but stage goes to Pagliarini; Leipheimer still leads

Race judges awarded Stage 6 to Brazil's Luciano Pagliarini because the first man across the finish line, Mark Cavendish used a team car to regain the peloton after a crash by other riders at the Amgen Tour of California.

The 20-second penalty must be a huge disappointment for Cavendish's High Road Team, which has yet to win a stage or make a threat in the overall leader's race.

American Levi Leipheimer finished safely in the peloton and retained his lead in the Tour. He only has to hold it for one more day to win the event in the final stage to Pasadena on Sunday.

Crash

On the finishing laps around Santa Clarita, several Rock Racing riders — including Freddie Rodriguez and Mario Cipollini — crashed. Apparently Cavendish was caught in the scrum and used a team car to draft back up to the peloton.

At the time, the peloton was chasing down the remnants of a six-man breakaway that had attacked about 25 miles from the start.

No threat

The six riders were no threat to Leipheimer, so his Astana team let them keep the 7- minute margin during most of the race.

However, as the peloton got closer to the end of the 105-mile stage from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita, the sprinter's teams picked up the pace as they were itching to get their guys to the front.

As the breakaway cyclists dropped off closer to the finish, the UK's David Millar of Slipstream bridged up to the two remaining riders in the break. The surprise move could have threatened Leipheimer's lead, as Miller sat just 49 seconds back.

Picked off

The accelerating sprinter's teams weren't going to let Millar win this stage, however, and the final three were passed with less than a mile to go.

That's when Stage 4 winner Dominique Rollin attempted a repeat stage victory and jumped out. He couldn't sustain the pace over that distance, however, and he was caught by a host of cyclists.

One was Cavendish, a 21-year-old rider from the UK. He had tried a similar early sprint in Stage 2 in Sacramento and couldn't pull it off either.

Finishing second was Luciano Pagliarini (Bra) Saunier Duval-Scott, followed by Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Team CSC. Well after the race, however, the two moved up because of the 20-second penalty against Cavendish. Paolo Bettini came in third in the official results.