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Tour de Suisse 2009: Stage 6

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We will be reporting live on the sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse as of 15:30 CET.

Hello and welcome to the Tour de Suisse!  After the mountains we are now at what is considered the easiest stage in the race, and we may well see another sprint finish in Bad Zurzach.

There's not a lot happening so far today in this stage. The 155 riders took off promptly at 13:38, and they started climbing almost immediately.  There were lots of attempted attacks but no one got away. Everyone stayed together for a long time.

But that was too good to last.  With 50 km under his belt, Reto Hollenstein of Team Vorarlberg-Corratec took off. And did he ever take off!  There are now 116 km to go, and he has a lead of 5:14.

That gives the Swiss rider the "virtual" yellow jersey. He came into the day as 47th, 4:06 down.

Who is Reto Hollenstein, you ask? So do we.   He is a 23-year-old Swiss, who last year rode for the Continental Team Atlas-Romers and turned pro this year with the Austrian Professional Continental Team Vorarlberg-Corratec.

104km remaining from 177km

The first climb of the day was the Hölzlisberg, a category two climb. Unfortunately no one seems to want to tell us who won that climb.

99km remaining from 177km

After that climb, there was a very long descent, nearly 75 km.  The peloton arrives at the finish line for the first time at km 121.8, and then heads off for two rounds of a circuit course.  That includes the category three climb Zurziberg, with the last climb coming 27 km before the finish.  That ought to give the sprinters time to get ready for the relatively flat run-in.

It is warm again today, 23-28°, starting out sunny but with increasing clouds and a chance of showers or even thunderstorms late in the afternoon.

As always, a  look at Who's Who.  The overall leader is Tadej Valjavec of AG2R, who is 14 seconds ahead of Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas) and Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank). Defending champion Roman Kreuziger is fourth, at 42 seconds, closely followed by Astana's Andreas Klöden at 45 seconds.

Enrico Gasparotto (Lampre) leads the sprint classfication ahead of Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Björn Schröder of Milram.

96km remaining from 177km

 Enrico Gasparotto (Lampre) leads the sprint classfication ahead of Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and Björn Schröder of Milram.

 Tony Martin (Columbia) has a good grasp on the mountain ranking, leading with 58 points ahead of Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) and Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank).

Saxo Bank leads in the team ranking, in front of Columbia and Liquigas.

70km remaining from 177km

 

The riders are slowly approaching the circuit course, which they will ride twice.

60km remaining from 177km

The Zurziberg, which is climbed twice near the end, has a two km ascent with an average gradient of 7%.

We are used to seeing brothers ride together or against each other, but yesterday's stage featured a father-son duel:  Marcello Albasini, DS at Cervelo TestTeam vs. Michael Albasini, rider for Team Columbia-Highroad.  When the son took off and attacked, the dad had to send his riders after him – but without success.

52km remaining from 177km

 The field is stretched out single file now on this pleasant flat section.

 Happy Hour for Cervelo.  They pass bottles around.  It's very important to keep hydrating, especially on a hot sunny day like this.

Is it a problem for the Albasinis, that they are competitors at races?  "No! We each do our  own job," said papa Marcello.

 Tony Martin and a Columbia teammate have jumped out of the peloton and the King of the Mountains takes the second place mountain points.  Not many, since it is only category three, but every bit helps.

45km remaining from 177km

 Filippo Pozzato is looking very natty today with his sleeves pushed all the way up.  Gotta get rid of those ugly tan lines, right?

 The mountain points went to Hollenstein, Martin and Columbia's Maxime Monfort.

 Have several members of the peloton jumped off the road to the neighboring bike path?  Or are those hobby riders decked out in pro kit?

 Columbia, Rabobank and Cervelo are sharing the chase work at the moment.  Let's see, they wouldn't be trying to set things up for Cavendish, Freire and Hushovd, would they?

50km remaining from 177km

 

 Liquigas is the next to belly up to the bar.  A pea-green rider drops back and waves his water bottle as a symbol of what he wants.

The whole peloton looks to be together, by the way.  Well, except for Hollenstein, of course.  The Category Three climb wasn't enough to drop any sprinters.

30km remaining from 177km

28km remaining from 177km

Now the field approaches the finish line, tearing through the town.

 The gap is at exactly two minutes now.

 A fan gets out on the road and runs alongise Hollenstein.  That young man had better put his shirt back on, otherwise he might have a nasty sunburn!

 Hollenstein hits the top of the climb and takes the points.  We must say that this is one of the mildest climbs we have ever seen.

24km remaining from 177km

 Rabobank moves up to take over the lead work from Cervelo.

And that's it:  the young man lets his head hang as he sees the peloton rapidly approaching.

 At the first sprint, just a few minutes ago, the points went to Hollenstein, Cancellara and Gasparotto.

 The mountain points on the last climb went to Hollenstein, Kozontchouk and Cuesta.

 The peloton seems to be toying with Hollenstein, as they stay a few seconds behind him.  He pounds the handlebars in frustration and looks back again.

19km remaining from 177km

18km remaining from 177km

 Now it is up to the sprinters' teams.  Which one will have the best legs today?

 A mechanical for a Euskaltel rider.

 Or is it "an" Euskaltel rider?

 At any rate, it was M. Irizar.

 Cervelo has taken command again, with Rabobank behind them.  And we see some of those yellow Columbia jerseys near the front, too.

 Fränk Schleck of Saxo Bank is working his way up through the team cars.  We don't know why he has dropped so far back.

 The Dutch team Rabobank is controlling things now, they seem to be trading off with Cervelo.

 F.Schleck has now caught the tail end of the peloton again.

10km remaining from 177km

8km remaining from 177km

 Now Columbia has moved to the front and is really putting on the speed. Martin leads the way, distinct in his pink mountain jersey.

 Milram comes up on the other side, looking to do something for Gerald Ciolek.

 Six Milram riders at the front!

 On the other side Liquigas and Euskaltel set up their own train.

4km remaining from 177km

 Even Linus Gerdemann of Milram is taking a turn at the front.

2km remaining from 177km

 Cervelo has its train going already.  The other team are still trying to organize.

 Another hard turn coming up, and  HIncapie leads the way.  Hushovd behind him and Cavendish behind him.

 Hincapie drops off, Hushovd give his all and -- of course -- Cavendish slips easily around him and takes the win.

 That's 13 wins this season fro the Manxman, who happily hugs his teammates in thanks.

 Columbia's Bert Grabch tells Swiss tv, "another sprint, another Cavendish win" . Who can beat him these days?

 Looks like Freire was second -- again.  And third goes to Francesco Gavazzi of Lampre.

 That was it, the sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse and our first live report on the "new" website.  Hope you enjoyed it!

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