Today was the queen's stage for the riders of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 with two hors catégorie climbs and one climb of the first category between Meiringen and La Punt. The stage took place in quite bad weather conditions (rain), except for the end when the sun appeared. In the climb of the Albulapass, the Dutch rider Robert Gesink Rabobank came back on Andy Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) and decided to continue his attack. The young Dutch rider thus arrived solo on the finish line, 42 seconds ahead of the first group of 8 riders behind him.

The summary of the 6th stage of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland: Meiringen > La Punt

213.3 kilometers seperated the riders this morning at the start in Meiringen from the finish in La Punt.

Immediately after the start the riders started the climb of the Sustenpass (hors catégorie) which had its top at kilometer 28.5. After the descent of this mountain they directly continued with the climb of the Oberalppass (1st category), before a hilly part and finally the climb of the Albulapass. In the descent of this mountain was the finish in La Punt. With its 3 climbs and its 213.3 kilometers this was the queen stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010.

Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia), who was at the origin of the massive fall at the end of the 4th stage, didn't come to the start today and quite rapidly after the start of the stage Wilfried Cretskens (Omega Pharma-Lotto) gave up.

After 3 kilometers a leading group of 8 riders was formed, which rapidly grew to 13 riders. In this leading group Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) is the first to pass over the top of the Sustenpass, ahead of Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team), Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank).
In this group, the other riders were Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Jérémy Roy (Française des Jeux), Juan José Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank), Philip Deignan (Cervélo TestTeam), Eduard Vorganov (Team Katusha) and Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne).

The gap of the 13 leading riders went up to 6'40" before the HTC-Columbia team found in Team Saxo Bank a team with which it could collaborate to bring down the gap.

At the top of the Oberallpass Wouter Poels again arrives first on top, again ahead of Mathias Frank and this time Jérémy Roy. The Dutch rider thus took the leader's jersey for the King of the Mountain classification.

In the climb of the Albulapass, with 2,315 meters altitude the rooftop of the Tour of Switzerland 2010, the leading group exploses, with Brice Feillu at the front and the Schleck brothers (Team Saxo Bank) and Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) chasing behind. While Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) and the yellow jersey Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) can no longer follow, a group with Roman Kreuziger, Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Stijn Devolder (Quick Step) and Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) starts chasing the leading riders, just like Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team), Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) and a bit later also Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) and Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas-Doimo).

When Brice Feillu's leading position is taken over by Juan Manuel Garate and Amets Txurruka, Robert Gesink and Andy Schleck join those two riders to form a new leading group with 4 riders. At about 15 kilometers from the finish, still in the climb of the Albulapass, Robert Gesink decided to attack and on the top he already had over one minute gap on Matteo Carrara and Roman Kreuziger who arrive 2nd and 3rd on the rooftop of the Tour of Switzerland 2010.
The leader of the Rabobank team in this Tour of Switzerland 2010 than showed a big performance in the descent and thus arrives with a 42 seconds lead on the finish line in La Punt. He's followed by a group of 8 riders which was formed behind him and in which Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) wins the sprint for the second place; this sprint was initiated by Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack). Uran was followed by Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha Team) and Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas-Doimo) while Armstrong finally takes the 5th place of the stage.

Apart from Wilfried Cretskens, Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Olivier Bonnaire and Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) also gave up during this stage.

Tomorrow, the 7th stage will connect Savognin with Wetzikon in 204.1 kilometers. Remember you can check out the 2010 Tour de Suisse route on Google Maps / Google Earth to know all details of this stage.

The classifications of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland after the 6th stage

The stage classification for the 6th stage Meiringen > La Punt

The top 10 of this stage is thus as follows:

1/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 6h20'53" (33,601 km/h)
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'42"
3/ Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha Team)
4/ Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas-Doimo)
5/ Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack)
6/ Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
7/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team)
8/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank)
9/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo)
10/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - +1'20"

General classification

Thanks to his first place in this stage and the gap with the former yellow jersey Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), the Dutch rider Robert Gesink (Rabobank) also takes the first place in the general classification, with a 9 seconds gap on the Spanish rider Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne). We also note the good move for Lance Armstrong who climbs up to the 7th place:

1/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 25h18'57"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'29"
3/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) - +0'36"
4/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'38"
5/ Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha Team) - +0'42"
6/ Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - +0'54"
7/ Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) - +0'55"
8/ Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas-Doimo) - +1'01"
9/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - +1'17"
10/ Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky) - +1'38"

Classification by points

No changes in the top 3 of the classification by points, of which the top 10 is now as follows:

1/ Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 42 points
2/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - 30 points
3/ Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team) - 25 points
4/ Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) - 24 points
5/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - 24 points
6/ Robbie McEwen (Katusha Team) - 24 points
7/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 21 points
8/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - 20 points
9/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - 20 points
10/ Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 20 points
11/ Matti Breschel (Team Saxo Bank) - 20 points

King of the Mountains classification

By taking the first place on the top of the two first climbs of the day, the Dutch rider Wouter Poels gets over the Swiss Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) by 2 points in the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 40 points
2/ Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) - 38 points
3/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 21 points
4/ Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 19 points
5/ Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 19 points

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour of Switzerland | Tour of Switzerland 2010 | UCI ProTour

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