Stage 6: Sky Shines

On rainy day in Normandy, Team Sky shined. Edvald Boasson Hagen took his first stage win at the Tour de France in a hotly contested bunch sprint. At 220 kilometers, the course was the longest of this year’s Tour, and bad luck continued to plague a number of overall favorites.

Defending champion Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank suffered problems with his bike, borrowing teammate Daniel Navarro’s bike for a time. The two Spaniards are of similar size with Contador at 5’9 ½” and 140 lbs. and Navarro at 5’9” and 130 lbs. It is Navarro’s responsibility to assist Contador as team leader in any way possible, including giving him his bicycle.

At the intermediate sprint, the Movistar team of Jose Joaquin Rojas was giving it full gas at the front, but HTC pulled Mark Cavendish through. The Manx Missile coasted in first among the sprinters and secured the most points. Rojas was next, followed by Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo. Only Rojas remained in the mix at the finish line.

With around 20K to go, teams including HTC-Highroad and Omega Pharma-Lotto were leading the peloton, working for the stage win. Among the general classification contenders, BMC was keeping Cadel Evans at front and out of trouble, as was Liquigas for Ivan Basso. Contador popped up in the final 3 kilometers to avoid another crash. Geraint Thomas, leader of the best young rider competition, was leading out teammate Boasson Hagen for the victory, while David Millar worked for fellow Garmin rider Thor Hushovd. At 2.3K to go, Jurgen Van den Broeck shot ahead but was overtaken by Thomas Voeckler, and attacks by teams Astana and Rabobank were also not enough. Boasson Hagen crossed the line first, followed by Matt Goss of HTC, Romain Feillu of Vacansoleil, and Rojas.

Today’s victory was the sweetest of Boasson Hagen’s career to date. The 24-year-old Norwegian is the five-time national time trial champion of Norway and has won the Tour of Britain and Gent-Wevelgem. Formerly riding for HTC, Boasson Hagen joined Team Sky at its launch last year and has delivered today what may be the squad’s most prestigious win thus far. In more good news for Norway, Thor Hushovd retained the yellow jersey as race leader.

The inclines of Stage 6 may have been too much for Farrar and Cavendish, but Stage 7 is the flat course they dream of. The finish in Chateauroux is the site of Cav’s first-ever victory at the Tour de France, and he will be eager to repeat. Farrar will give him a run for his money, as will Rojas and other teams looking for results, such as Quick Step with Tom Boonen and Lampre with Alessandro Petacchi. Be sure to watch the final 5 kilometers.

Speaking of Rojas and Boonen, the two were stripped of the points won at the intermediate sprint on Tuesday’s Stage 5. Race rules require cyclists to drive straight ahead once they accelerate for the sprint finish, to stay in an invisible lane ahead of them. Rojas veered hard to the left, and Boonen followed. The maneuvers blocked Cavendish from pulling forward and shut him out, and they could have caused a dangerous collision. The judges rightly took back the points from Rojas and Boonen, particularly after they had penalized Cavendish and Hushovd for leaving their lines on Stage 3. Nice to see the rules being fairly applied.

Interview with Stage 6 winner Edvald Boasson Hagen: http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=tour+de+france+stage+6+edvald+boasson+hagen

View Stage 6 results: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/600/classement/index.html

View Stage 7 map and profile: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/700/etape_par_etape.html