Cavendish Wins Again In Tour's Stage 6

Stage 6 of the Tour de France was the last stage before the Tour finally enters the mountains (the Alps) and the sprinters made the most of it. Some had thought the four small category 4 climbs in this leg would encourage some of the climbers to go for a win today, but it seems they all decided to save their efforts for the much more difficult climbs that start tomorrow.

There was a breakaway but it didn't seem to be a serious one as the peloton caught it with 10 kilometers to go to the finish. From that point on it was just a matter of the teams setting up their sprinters for the finish. For the second day in a row, British rider Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) finished in first place. After a poor start in this year's Tour, he is now rocketing up the standings in his race for the Green Jersey.

American rider Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) had a very good day and finished the stage in second place. The amazing thing about that is that he did it with a yet-to-be-healed broken bone in his hand which makes it painful to grip and pull on the handlebars (which a sprinter must do to power to the finish line). The third place finisher was Italian rider Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese).

Thor Hushovd, Norway (Cervelo) finished the stage in tenth place and got enough points to keep the Green Jersey for a while longer. The overall standings did not change since all the leaders finished the race in the peloton and got the same official time. That will probably change tomorrow as the race enters the mountains. Some of the sprinters and weaker riders will begin to drop in the overall standings and it will become more apparent who the real contenders are to win the Tour this year.

Stage 7 will be the most difficult stage of the Tour so far this year. It is a 165.5 kilometer ride from Tournus to Station Des Rousses. It has a category 4 climb, two category 3 climbs and three category 2 climbs with the race finishing at the top of the last category 2 climb. The lower the category number is, the harder the climb is considered to be.

Here are the current standings:

YELLOW JERSEY (Overall Leaders)

1. Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland (Saxo Bank)

2. Geraint Thomas, Great Britain (Sky Pro).....0' 20"

3. Cadel Evans, Australia (BMC Racing).....0' 39"

4. Ryder Hesjedal, Canada (Garmin-Transitions).....0' 46"

5. Sylvain Chavanel, France (Quick Step).....1' 01"

6. Andy Schleck, Luxembourg (Saxo Bank).....1' 09"

7. Thor Hushovd, Norway (Cervelo).....1' 16"

8. Alexandre Vinokourov, Kazakhstan (Astana).....1' 31"

9. Alberto Contador, Spain (Astana).....1' 40"

10. Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Belgium (Omega-Lotto).....1' 42"

11. Nicolas Roche, Ireland (AG2R La Mondiale).....1' 42"

18. Lance Armstrong, USA (Radio Shack).....2' 30"

GREEN JERSEY (Sprinters)

1. Thor Hushovd, Norway (Cervelo).....118 pts

2. Alessandro Petacchi, Italy (Lampre-Farnese).....114 pts

3. Robbie McEwen, Australia (Katusha).....105 pts

4. Jose Joaquin Rojas, Spain (Caisse D'Epargne).....92 pts

5. Mark Cavendish, Great Britain (HTC-Columbia).....85 pts

6. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norway (Sky Pro).....82 pts

7. Sebastien Turgot, France (Bouygues Telecom).....79 pts

8. Geraint Thomas, Great Britain (Sky Pro).....74 pts

9. Gerald Ciolek, Germany (Milram).....71 pts

10. Daniel Oss, Italy (Liquigas-Doimo).....54 pts

11. Tyler Farrar, USA (Garmin-Transitions).....53 pts

POLKA DOT JERSEY (Climbers)

1. Jerome Pineau, France (Quick Step).....13 pts

2. Mathieu Perget, France (Caisse D'Epargne).....12 pts

3. Sylvain Chavanel, France (Quick Step).....8 pts

4. Rin Taaramae, Estonia (Cofidis).....8 pts

5. Sebastian Lang, Germany (Omega-Lotto).....7 pts

6. Jurgen Van De Walle, Belgium (Quick Step).....6 pts

7. Maxime Montfort, Belgium (HTC-Columbia).....5 pts

8. Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Spain (Caisse D'Epargne).....4 pts

9. Ruben Perez Moreno, Spain (Euskaltel-Euskadi).....4 pts

10. Matthew Lloyd, Australia (Omega-Lotto).....4 pts

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Saxo Bank

2. Garmin-Transitions.......0' 05"

3. Sky Pro.......0' 19"

4. Astana.......2' 21"

5. BMC Racing.......2' 50"

6. Cervelo.......3' 16"

7. Rabobank.......3' 37"

8. Omega-Lotto.......3' 40"

9. AG2R La Mondiale.......3' 46"

10. Caisse D'Epargne.......3' 52"

11. HTC-Columbia.......4' 23"

12. Radio Shack.......4' 28"