Tony Martin of HTC-Highroad is the latest leader of Paris-Nice after powering through today’s 27km time trial from Rognes to Aix-en-Provence to take the yellow jersey. Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins put in the second quickest time, 20 seconds down on Martin’s 33’24” and rises to third in the general classification with two stages left to race, while Saxo Bank-SunGard’s Richie Porte finished third.
Wiggins now lies 39 seconds behind Martin in the overall standings, but only three seconds behind the man who started the day in the yellow jersey, Andreas Kloden.
The RadioShack rider, winner of yesterday’s Stage 5, had limited his losses well at the intermediate time check, which he reached six seconds down on Martin and two on Wiggins, the fastest two men at that point.
However, he was unable to maintain the pace he had set himself and lost 20 seconds to the new race leader on the second half of the course to finish behind Porte, while Wiggins in fact picked up two seconds on the way to the line.
Another Team Sky rider, Geraint Thomas, had set the early pace but his time of 35’24” ended up being only the 23rd fastest of the day.
With plenty of climbing still to come in the final two stages this weekend, there’s still plenty of scope for a further shake-up in the overall standings, with the likes of Samuel Sanchez, who had started today in second place but lost 1’40”, looking to recoup their losses.
Tomorrow’s Stage 7 covers 215km from Brignoles Biot to Sophia Antipolis, while Sunday’s final Stage 8 follows a 125km route that starts and finishes in Nice.
Paris-Nice Stage 6 Result
1 MARTIN Tony HTC - HIGHROAD 33' 24"
2 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING + 00' 20"
3 PORTE Richie SAXO BANK SUNGARD + 00' 29"
4 KLÖDEN Andréas TEAM RADIOSHACK + 00' 46"
5 PERAUD Jean-Christophe AG2R LA MONDIALE + 00' 55"
6 WESTRA Lieuwe VACANSOLEIL-DCM + 00' 57"
7 TALANSKY Andrew TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO + 01' 05"
8 TAARAMAE Rein COFIDIS + 01' 10"
9 LEIPHEIMER Levi TEAM RADIOSHACK + 01' 10"
10 VAN GARDEREN Tejay HTC - HIGHROAD + 01' 29"
11 VINOKOUROV Alexandre PRO TEAM ASTANA + 01' 29"
12 BRAJKOVIC Janez TEAM RADIOSHACK + 01' 32"
13 MOLLEMA Bauke RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM + 01' 38"
14 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM + 01' 40"
15 DE GENDT Thomas VACANSOLEIL-DCM + 01' 43"
16 SANCHEZ Samuel EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 01' 43"
17 DEVOLDER Stijn VACANSOLEIL-DCM + 01' 47"
18 SIVTSOV Kanstantsin HTC - HIGHROAD + 01' 49"
19 TONDO Xavier MOVISTAR TEAM + 01' 51"
20 GERDEMANN Linus TEAM LEOPARD-TREK + 01' 55"
23 THOMAS Geraint SKY PROCYCLING + 02' 00"
150 LLOYD Daniel TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO + 05' 48"
158 HUNT Jérémy SKY PROCYCLING + 06' 29"
Overall Standings after Stage 6
1 MARTIN Tony HTC - HIGHROAD 24h 59' 47"
2 KLÖDEN Andréas TEAM RADIOSHACK + 00' 36"
3 WIGGINS Bradley SKY PROCYCLING + 00' 39"
4 TAARAMAE Rein COFIDIS + 01' 10"
5 PERAUD Jean-Christophe AG2R LA MONDIALE + 01' 14"
6 LEIPHEIMER Levi TEAM RADIOSHACK + 01' 29"
7 BRAJKOVIC Janez TEAM RADIOSHACK + 01' 32"
8 SANCHEZ Samuel EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 01' 37"
9 TONDO Xavier MOVISTAR TEAM + 01' 51"
10 MOLLEMA Bauke RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM + 01' 57"
11 SANCHEZ Luis-Leon RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM + 01' 58"
12 PORTE Richie SAXO BANK SUNGARD + 02' 05"
13 ROGERS Michael SKY PROCYCLING + 02' 17"
14 MONFORT Maxime TEAM LEOPARD-TREK + 02' 22"
15 CARRARA Matteo VACANSOLEIL-DCM + 02' 28"
16 SCHLECK Frank TEAM LEOPARD-TREK + 02' 30"
17 KISERLOVSKI Robert PRO TEAM ASTANA + 02' 31"
18 VAN GARDEREN Tejay HTC - HIGHROAD + 03' 05"
19 SORENSEN Chris SAXO BANK SUNGARD + 03' 07"
20 KREUZIGER Roman PRO TEAM ASTANA + 03' 09"
131 THOMAS Geraint SKY PROCYCLING + 40' 44"
142 LLOYD Daniel TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO + 44' 32"
156 HUNT Jérémy SKY PROCYCLING + 52' 41"
You mean they called up one of their friends or family members to stump up the £7 to get it greenlit....
There are plenty of students who come from very wealthy families, which doesn't also mean that there aren't students who don't.
If the chains snap that is lack of build quality or material.....
It probably depends on which police force is involved....
"Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good."
His life was only worth shy of 7 years ,that's too lenient in every book .Let alone drugged up and leaving him to die
2 years suspended...
I came here to basically write the same thing, the floating bus stop near me has a very narrow cycling lane between a very narrow pavement and a...
It wasn't an official consultation meeting - see my comment above.
Right, well that could be handy: I'm going round with my baseball bat to have a quiet chat about ownership. You can use their names to see if they...