Today's stage was the queen stage between Saint-Alban-Leysse and Morzine in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 and it kept its promises and a big Columbian show on the route of the Alps. Indeed, Cayetano José Sarmiento confirmed he really merited his red jersey with white polka dots, while the stage victory was for another Columbian, Nairo Quintana.

In the general classification we see some changes, but since he's now followed by a team mate and Cadel Evans is 1'36" behind him, Bradley Wiggins is almost sure of the overall victory, for the second year in row in the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The summary of the 6th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 between Saint-Alban-Leysse and Morzine

With 3 riders not starting (Arnold Jeannesson of the FDJ BigMat team, Anthony Delaplace for Saur-Sojasun and Stefan Denifl for Vacansoleil-DCM), 158 riders came to the start in Saint-Alban-Leysse and started the stage towards Morzine (167.5 km) directly with the 11 kilometer long climb of the Col de Plainpalais.

In this climb, a group of a little bit less than fifteen riders rapidly got away from the peloton with Cayetano José Sarmiento (Liquigas-Cannondale), who was already in the breakaway yesterday and who went upfront to defend his polka dot jersey. In this group we also found riders like Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun), Blel Kadri and Christophe Riblon for AG2R La Mondiale, Tiago Machado (Radioshack-Nissan), Rémy Di Gregorio (Cofidis), Marco Marzano (Lampre-ISD), Jesus Hernandez (Saxo Bank), Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano), Petr Ignatenko (Katusha Team) and finally Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil-DCM). Before this group really managed to grow the gap, Alberto Losada (Katusha Team), David Moncoutié (Cofidis) and Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) joined them, just like Yury Trofimov (Katusha Team), Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland for Europcar and Maciej Paterski (Liquigas-Cannondale) a bit later. That's how a leading group of 19 riders was formed and this group stayed ahead until the foot of the last climb.

In the mean time, Xavier Florencio (Katusha Team) abandoned the race, just like Andy Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan) a bit later. The rider from Luxembourg was dropped in the first climb and left the roads of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 after 63 kilometers in today's stage. Apparently he still suffered from the consequences of his crash in Thursday's time trial which prevented him from keeping his bike steady in a normal way.

On top of the Col de Plainpalais, Cayetano José Sarmiento went for the points for the King of the Mountains classification, ahead of David Moncoutié and Brice Feillu.

While the gap of the breakaway stabilised around 3 minutes, the young Columbian rider did the same on top of the Col de Leschaux (ahead of Paterski and Losada), on the Col des Essérieux (ahead of Paterski and Losada) and on the Col de la Colombière where he again attacked from the breakaway, together with his team mate Maciej Paterski. Andriy Grivko (Astana), who started the chase just before the feeding zone leading to this climb, joined the leading group in the descent and the number of riders in the breakaway thus went up to 20.

Realizing that this big group would probably not be able to go on until the finish, Brice Feillu attacked from the leading group in the Côte de Châtillon-sur-Cluses, the forelast climb of the day - before the Col de Joux-Plane - to try a remake of what he did to win a Tour stage in Andorra Arcalis. The French rider thus took the points on top of this 3rd category climb, but Sarmiento passed second, ahead of Moncoutié.

With the help of the Lotto-Belisol team for Team Sky, the peloton accellerated and slowly came back on several riders of the early breakaway. While the yellow jersey group left more and more elements, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) could still count on help from his team mates since 3 of them were still with him: Chris Froome, Richie Porte and Michael Rogers. After Sarmiento who spent most of the stage in the breakaway, it was the turn for another Columbian rider to attack in the Col de Joux-Plane. More precisely, the rider in question was Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) and he relatively easy came back on Brice Feillu and than continued his quest for victory in Morzine.
Early in the descent, Cadel Evans tried to get back on him and take some time on Wiggins, attacking from the yellow jersey group, but he finally only took 8 seconds of Quintana's gap and that was thus the time he took back on Bradley Wiggins.

Quintana went on to the finish and thus made it a solo victory in Morzine, 16 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans and 24 on the yellow jersey group, led by Daniel Moreno (Katusha Team). This was the queen stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 and it kept its promises with two Columbian riders making the most of it.

The classifications of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 after the forelast stage

The stage classification for stage 6/ Saint-Alban-Leysse > Morzine

Here's the top 10 of this 6th and forelast stage:

1/ Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) - 4h46'12"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'16"
3/ Daniel Moreno (Katusha Team) - +0'24"
4/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky)
5/ Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE)
6/ Christopher Froome (Team Sky)
7/ Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar Team)
8/ Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol)
9/ Michael Rogers (Team Sky)
10/ Haimar Zubeldia (Radioshack-Nissan)

General classification

The queen stage also kept its promises for the general classification in which we see some changes in the top 5 below:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 23h40'59"
2/ Michael Rogers (Team Sky) - +1'20"
3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +1'36"
4/ Christopher Froome (Team Sky) - +1'48"
5/ Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) - +2'22"

Points classification

Finishing second in today's stage, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) took some extra points for the points classification and the last winner of the Tour de France thus takes the first place from Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan) who wore the green jersey so far.

1/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 56 points
2/ Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan) - 51 points
3/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 47 points
4/ Daniel Moreno (Katusha Team) - 43 points
5/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) - 36 points

King of the Mountains classification

By getting in the breakaway for the second day in row and getting first on top of all climbs of the day except for the last two ones, Cayetano José Sarmiento (Liquigas-Cannondale) extended his gap on Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) in the King of the Mountains classification. With the points he took in today's breakaway, David Moncoutié (Cofidis) gets at the same level as the rider from the AG2R team:

1/ Cayetano José Sarmiento (Liquigas-Cannondale) - 88 points
2/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 61 points
3/ David Moncoutié (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 61 points
4/ Giovanni Bernaudeau (Team Europcar) - 38 points
5/ Nicolas Edet (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 38 points

Best young rider classification

Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank) was a bit afraid of this stage and he indeed lost some time on Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) in the best young riders classification, but the young Dutch rider still has a 25 seconds gap on the American rider the day before the final finish in Châtel:

1/ Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank) - 23h44'25"
2/ Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) - +0'25"
3/ Egor Silin (Astana) - +5'38"
4/ Cyril Gautier (Team Europcar) - +7'55"
5/ Alexandre Geniez (Team Argos-Shimano) - +9'55"

The photos of the 6th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012

123 photos taken at the start in Saint-Alban-Leysse, on the Col de la Colombière and at the finish in Morzine are now online in the photo category Critérium du Dauphiné 2012: 6 - Saint-Alban-Leysse, Colombière & Morzine.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 | Criterium du Dauphiné

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