The rain in Spain causes many riders pain

Image 1 of 75

"Rising from the city's heart is Montjuich, the magic mountain where from its crest, one can see why this Spanish coastal city is favoured by so many, open to the sea and embracing its rich inheritance and identity," reads the Tour de France guide of Barcelona.

Leading to the two-kilometre-long finishing climb on a miserable, rain-soaked Thursday afternoon, Thor Hushovd rose from the depths of the peloton, bided his time, then in the last 200 metres, ripped out the hearts of his adversaries with an unmatched final turn of speed, firmly establishing his first-year Cervélo TestTeam as a green jersey contender at the 2009 Tour de France.

"I think I know what I can do, and when I see stages like this I get really motivated," said Hushovd when asked about his uncanny knack of predicting - then winning - stages that he knows he can do well in. Hushovd comfortably outsprinted Rabobank's Oscar Freire and Jose Joaquin Rojas of Caisse d'Epargne to claim his first Tour stage win since the second stage of the 2008 Grande Boucle.

"I get my head together to be strong. I just know that finishes like this one or the one last year fit me well - and if they are the only chances I have to win, then I have to take them," he said, now just one point off the lead of Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) in the battle for the green jersey.

Despite being his seventh Tour de France stage victory and having been points champion in 2005, Hushovd - known as the "God of Thunder" for his preternatural power - was overlooked by many as a possible stage winner and therefore potential green jersey victor, largely due to the dominance of Columbia-HTC's Cavendish, who's won two stages so far. But the Norwegian wasn't bothered, and if anyone is going to topple the maillot vert from the Isle of Man this year, it's him.

"In the first week, [Carlos] Sastre gave me the chance to do what I wanted, so now I will try to support him," Hushovd said. "Of course, the green jersey is really important but we also have to help Sastre as much as we can."

Andorra Arcalis looms: Can Cancellara hold on?

Crossing the line in tenth place was the maillot jaune of Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank). The top six positions and relative times on the General Classification remained unchanged after Thursday's stage.

However, before Friday's first major mountain appointment to the 2,240-metre summit of Andorra Arcalis, there were some significant shuffles as Astana's Haimar Zubeldia, Garmin-Slipstream's Dave Zabriskie and his teammate David Millar - the stage protagonist caught just one kilometre from the line - lost their positions on the leader board's top-10, elevating Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream), Gustav Larsson (Saxo Bank) and Maxime Monfort (Columbia-HTC) to eighth, ninth and tenth overall, respectively.

"I rode with my heart instead of my head," said Millar, who wore the combative jersey of the day's most aggressive rider. "With 10km to go, I thought the peloton would still be disorganised, but with five kilometres to go, I said to myself, 'Oh no, it's over'."

"I don't want to think about tomorrow," said Cancellara of the crucial day that lies ahead, "just recover from today, because it was a really difficult stage with a crazy finish. Then I'll start thinking.

"But it's a good question and a question I have to ask myself. I know there are far better climbers like the Schleck brothers, but I will defend the jersey as much as I can. I don't know how well I can do. Now I have to help the team, but it's not a problem - it's been a great week in yellow. The real stages are coming. We will see Team Saxo Bank in the front, that's for sure," he said.

Girona - the city Americans call home

Beginning from the Spanish university town so many American riders have called home the past decade, the peloton, 177-strong at the start in Girona, faced a stage of medium difficulty before Friday's inevitable smack-down to Andorra Arcalis.

Comprising five categorised climbs that included a trio of Cat. 4s and a pair of Cat. 3s littered along the 181.five-kilometre route, it was the perfect parcours for a small escape, and after 46km and a flurry of unsuccessful moves, a break of three eventually stuck. British rider and Girona local David Millar of Garmin-Slipstream was first to go, followed by Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and moments later, Stéphane Augé (Cofidis), making it another break that favoured the French - so long as they made it to Barcelona.

Unlike the stage before, when a group of six established a near-10-minute lead, 3:27 was the most Thursday's trio got 65km into the stage. Still, it temporarily placed Millar, the best-placed rider on GC in the break, 1:07 behind Cancellara at the start of the day, into the virtual malliot jaune.

As the grey clouds above gave way to rain, it seemed to not bother them, and 70-km from the finish, they received some welcome horsepower when Euskaltel-Euskadi's Amets Txurruka bridged to the front trio, the peloton 1:42 in arrears. A few clicks later, when Augé led the quartet over the Cat. 4 climb of the Collesacreu at the 110-km mark, it guaranteed the Frenchman the polka-dot jersey by the day's end.

Some 30km from Barcelona and back in the peloton, a crash exiting a roundabout saw Cervélo's Heinrich Haussler, Michael Rogers (Columbia-HTC) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) go down; with a limping Rogers very slow to return to his machine.

With 29km to go, Millar attacked down the left side of the road on a false flat, his breakaway companions unable to respond. Four kilometres later, he enjoyed a one-minute lead, his advantage remaining steady still 10km after that, chased only by Augé (Cofidis) and Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi), with Chavanel (Quick Step) dropped.

Forward on the saddle and hunched low over his bars, Millar gave his all. But Thursday in Barcelona, his all was not quite enough, and the charging peloton caught just a kilometre out. That led to a frenzied uphill sprint that proved perfect for Hushovd.

For images of stage six click here

A famous football 14 meets Le Tour's no. 14

A Tour de France rider usually doesn't like standing on his legs any more than he needs to, but Thursday morning in Girona, Silence-Lotto's Matt Lloyd made an exception.

As he walked across to the Rabobank team bus, accompanied by his team's press officer, the diminutive Lloyd had a cheeky grin on his face. Was he thinking of jumping ship next year? It would have been a strange thing to do, given how much his leader Cadel Evans values a guy he recently called "his little brother".

Approaching the orange 16-wheeler, Lloyd yelled out, "Op de nieuw (Here's the new) Rabobank rider, whoo-hoo!"

There, he waited at the steps as if to enter, but strangely didn't.

A few minutes more, all was revealed: Lloyd wanted to meet the most famous Dutch football (or soccer, if you're an American or Aussie) player that's ever lived, Johan Cruyff, voted European Player of the Century by the International Football Federation in 1999 and second only to Pelé in an IFF World Player of the Century poll.

The legendary no. 14, his professional career spanning some 20 years from 1964-1984, rose to God-like stardom when he played at Ajax and for his country, and was a guest of the Rabobank team in Gerona, where Lloyd - rider number 14 at this year's Tour - wanted to meet his more famous number, at least for now.

"[The number 14] obviously has been his, but I'm not quite sure I'm as popular as he is at the moment," said Lloyd, grinning. "That might take a few years, but it's all good. When you get to meet someone from a totally different sport who's also a champion, it's special, so I'm happy."

Has the meeting with the football god given 'Lloydy' wings, Cyclingnews asked him?

Bellowed Lloyd with a laugh far bigger than what one would expect from a 171-centimetre-tall, 62-kilo guy, "It has, actually!"

Seriously, the 26-year-old former Australian champion said despite the team's performance in Tuesday's team time trial, where they finished eighth-last, losing 2:36 to Astana, Silence-Lotto is still optimistic Evans can deliver for the team.

"Given some of the teams - Astana and Saxo Bank, for example - had been working specifically for that team time trial, we had to minimise [our] damage. But sometimes you can't help a situation [referring to the crashes they experienced]. We're still optimistic - we know Cadel's ready for the mountains and individual time trials."

Does the climbing specialist expect to be with Evans all the way to Andorra Arcalis, the finish of Friday's seventh stage?

"I hope so," he said with a nervous grin.