Matthew Lloyd (OmegaPharma-Lotto) won the 173km sixth stage of the Giro d’Italia between Fidenza and Marina di Carrara, as a breakaway was successful for a second successive day. The Australian escaped his escape companion Rubens Bertogliati (Androni Giocattoli) on the final climb and stayed away to win alone. Bertogliati managed to hold on for second place, 1’06” behind Lloyd, while Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini) led the peloton home just 9 seconds later.
After just under 50km covered, Lloyd and Bertogliati made their escape, but not before yet another crash brought down a number of riders; once again stage 1 winner Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago-CSF Inox) were among those to hit the deck. With both escaping riders more than 11 minutes down on race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) they were allowed to pull away. By the time the two leaders reached the top of the first climb, the 946m Passo del Brattello, they were more than 5 minutes clear, with Lloyd taking the maximum points over the summit.
Another crash on the descent forced both Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) and Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R-La Mondiale) to ababdon. The former, currently sitting 10th overall, left the race by ambulance.
The two leaders managed to maintain their lead over the unresponsive peloton at around 5 minutes until they reached the start of the second big climb to Spolverina. As the bunch hit the lower slopes a counter attack from Matteo Bono (Lampre-Farnse Vini), Evgeni Petrov and Serguei Klimov (both Katusha), Johann Tschopp (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) and Cayetano Sarmiento (Acqua e Sapone) went clear. Klimov was soon dropped, while Bono lost contact further up the climb.
By the time Lloyd was first across the summit of the climb, the lead to the chasers was just 2’10” with the peloton just 40 seconds behind them. On the descent Lampre-Farnese Vini sprinter Alessandro Petacchi attacked from the peloton. The uncharacteristic move by Ale-Jet was explained by the fact that he hails from La Spezia, just a few kilometres along the coast from the stage finish.
With little more than 15km to go, at the base of the final climb, Lloyd attacked Bertogliati and the Swiss could only watch as the Australian powered his way up the climb. Behind them Petacchi was caught by a counter attack from Marco Pinotti (HTC-Columbia) but they were soon both pulled in by the peloton,
Lloyd once again took the points over the top of the Bedizzano climb, meaning he takes the lead in the green jersey competition from Paul Voss (Milram). By now Bertogliati was 46 seconds adrift, Petrov Tschopp and Sarmiento were at 1’20”, and the peloton was just 25 seconds behind them. There was no catching Lloyd on the descent, but Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) managed to bridge across to the chase group.
On the flatter run in to the finish, the peloton managed to pull back the four-man chase group, but Lloyd hung on to cross the line and take only OmegaPharma-Lotto’s second win of the season. Bertogliati just managed to hang on to his second place with the peloton snapping at his heels, and Hondo won the sprint for third.
Once again the overall contenders finished in the main peloton so Nibali still holds on to the leader’s maglia rosa. André Greipel and Matt Goss (both HTC-Columbia) did get dropped by the peloton though and so both drop off the top end of the standings.
Result stage 6
1. Matthew Lloyd (Aus) OmegaPharma-Lotto
2. Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Androni Giocattoli @ 1’06"
3. Danilo Hondo (Ger) Lampre-Farnese Vini @ 1’15”
4. Manuel Belletti (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
5. Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha
6. William Bonnet (Fra) Bbox Bouyges Telecom
7. Sacha Modolo (Ita) Colnago-CSF Inox
8. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Caisse d’Epargne
9. Alexander Efimkin (Rus) AG2R-La Mondiale
10. Baden Cooke (Aus) Team Saxo Bank
Standings after stage 6
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 13s
3. Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 20s
4. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Astana @ 33s
5. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha @ 39s