Norway's thundering sprinter Thor Hushovd won a tightly contested sprint in Barcelona on Thursday after the peloton took a squeegee to David Millar's hopes of a solo victory on Stage 6 of the Tour de France.
The overall leaders finished intact on the slippery streets of Barcelona as Fabian Cancellara held onto the yellow jersey for another day with Lance Armstrong trailing by less than a second.
Cancellara should savor his last hours in the yellow jersey, however, as the Tour rockets into the Pyrenees on Friday with a mountain top finish at Andorre Arcalis. He's unlikely to survive in the lead as a host of climbers, including four on Astana, will be ready to take over.
Breakaway
The peloton met a few short climbs on the 123-mile race from Girona to Barcelona on Thursday.
Millar, riding for Garmin-Slipstream, took his second stab at breakaway with about 79 miles to go in the stage. This was successful, and he was quickly joined by Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Stéphane Augé (Cofidis). Later, Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) made it a quartet.
But Millar was looking for a solo, so he attacked his small group about 17 miles from the finish line. He survived over the last climb and had a one-minute margin over the peloton.
Capture
With Thomas Voeckler's solo win in Stage 5 still fresh in everyone's mind, the sprinters' teams weren't about to let Millar steal their glory. Millar was swallowed in the peloton less than a mile from the finish line.
Cervelo's Hushovd put down the hammer and won his 7th Tour de France stage, followed by Oscar Feire. Britain's Mark Cavendish wasn't so lucky, as he posted a 17th place finish.
Cavendish's attempt for another stage win might have been hampered by one of the crashes in the final couple of miles. Tyler Farrar (Garmin) went down in one of those crashes, but made it to the finish line about 10 minutes after the winner.
Top 10 overall
1. Fabian Cancellara, Saxo Bank
2. Lance Armstrong, Astana – 00:00
3. Alberto Contador, Astana – 00:19 behind
4. Andreas Kloden, Astana – 00:23 behind
5. Levi Leipheimer, Astana – 00:31 behind
6. Bradley Wiggins, Garmin – 00:38 behind
7. Tony Martin, Columbia – 00:52 behind
8. Christian Vande Velde, Garmin – 01:16 behind
9. Gustav Larsson, Saxo Bank – 01:22 behind
10. Maxime Monfort, Columbia – 01:29 behind
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