Stage 6 - May 21: Llívia-Pallejà, 198,7 km

85th Volta a Catalunya - PT

Spain, May 16-22, 2005

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Chapeau Charteau!

After four years without success, 25 year-old Frenchman Anthony Charteau (Bouygues Telecom) has taken the first win of his professional career in superb fashion, winning the sixth stage of the Volta a Catalunya.

Part of a leading break of 10 riders from 10 different teams, Charteau attacked in the last kilometre of the 198,7 kilometre leg from Llívia to Pallejà to finish four seconds in front of Beat Zberg (Gerolsteiner) and José Luis Arrieta (Illes Balears). American Fred Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto) won the bunch sprint for 11th place.

While there was little to no change for the top riders on the overall classification, Christophe Moreau and Santiago Botero, who finished in the group with Zberg, both gained 21 seconds' advantage on their nearest rivals.

Discovery Channel's Yaroslav Popovych maintained his 20 second lead from yesterday's time trial over Italian Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Prodir), with David Moncoutie (Cofidis) still in third position overall. Barring disaster, the Ukrainian should go on to win the 85th edition of the race, which concludes in the Spanish capital of Barcelona tomorrow after a 113,1 kilometre road stage.