For a minute, it looked like US cyclist Christian Vande Velde would win the Stage 6 mountain top finish at the Tour de France on Thursday.
But the climb to Super Besse was too steep and too long, and attacks by stronger climbers allowed Italy's Riccardo Ricco to easily win the stage, followed closely by overall favorites Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans.
The 10% climb in the final mile also took another casualty, as overall race leader Stefan Schumacher touched a wheel and fell on the uphill. Although he finished the race, he lost time to Team Columbia's Kim Kirchen, above, who took the yellow jersey.
The Luxembourg cyclist for the US-based team has been battling near the front on several earlier stages. Ironically, it was Kirchen's rear wheel that tripped up Schumacher on the final climb up Super Besse.
Super Besse
The battle on the mountain the Massif Central region ended a 121-mile race between Aigurande and Super Besse. The final climb is 5% to 6%, with a finish on the last mile of about 10% gradient.
Vande Velde of the US-based Garmin-Chipotle team attacked on the bottom segment and was joined by Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Scott) with about 3 miles to go. Although they gained up to 17 seconds, the peloton driven by Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team caught up and passed on the steepest stretch.
That's when Ricco attacked and crossed the finish just ahead of Valverde and Evans.
“Out gunned”
Vande Velde finished in 19th place, about 23 seconds down. Later he told Versus, “I found myself a little outgunned.”
In spite of not winning the stage, Vande Velde found himself rising two spots in the overall standings to 4th place in the battle for the yellow jersey. He's also the highest placed of the four US cyclists in the bike race.
Kirchen, who finished 5th on the stage, also took over the points jersey from Thor Hushovd. Kirchen has been named as one of the long-short favorites to win the Tour de France.
The day's breakaway consisted of Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Freddy Bichot (Agritubel) and Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux). Chavanel took most of the points on the mountains on Thursday, which gave him the King of the Mountain polka dot jersey. He's tied in points with Thomas Voeckler, but gained the advantage by finishing first on the category 2 Col de la Croix-Morand.
This was Team Columbia's second visit to the podium in as many days. As Kirchen took the post-race podium twice on Thursday — for the yellow and green jersey competitions — sprinter Mark Cavendish took the podium for the Stage 5 win.
Meanwhile, the other US team, Garmin-Chipotle, is still leading the oveall team competition for the third day in a row.
The overall top 10:
1 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence – Lotto, 6 seconds behind
3 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner, 16 seconds
4 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30, 44 seconds
5 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30, 47 seconds
6 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia, 54 seconds
7 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank, 1.03
8 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 1.12
9 Stijn Devolder (Bel) Quick Step, same
10 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, same
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