Tour de France

Sixth stage: Norway's Hushovd wins race to Barcelona

Article published on the 2009-07-09 Latest update 2009-07-10 11:02 TU

Thor Hushovd wins stage 6 of the 2009 Tour de France
(Photo: Reuters)

Norway’s Thor Hushovd of the Cervelo team completed a dramatic day’s racing by claiming the sixth stage of the Tour de France on Thursday.

The 181.5km ride from Gerona to Barcelona in Spain looked as though it would end in another British win as David Millar attempted to emulate Mark Cavendish’s two stage wins. But the Scotsman was overhauled by the peloton just two kilometres from the line.

A 40-strong group raced past Millar on the way to the finish line with Spaniard Oscar Freire slightly in front.

But, in the dying metres, Hushovd found an extra gear and nudged ahead of Rabobank's former three-time world champion.

It was Hushovd's first stage win of this year’s tour, his seventh overall.

"It's been a really stressful week, with crashes and the rain and just the race itself ... I'm just so happy," said Hushovd.

"It's always good to win on the Tour but after everything that's happened this has to be one of my best."

Swiss Fabian Cancellara retained the race leader's yellow jersey with a 0.22 second lead over American Lance Armstrong.

With the race heading into the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees on Friday, Cancellara admitted that he may not be wearing the yellow jersey for much longer.

"I want to defend it but I just don't know how far I can go," he said.

"If it's over for me tomorrow it doesn't matter. It's been a great week and I've been proud to wear the jersey. But I'm ready to try and defend the jersey."

Britain's Mark Cavendish retained the sprinters' green jersey for the points competition by just one point over the Norwegian.

Stage six individual results:

1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team 4:21:33

2 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank

3 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne

4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram

5 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas

6 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha

7 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre - NGC

8 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale

9 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto

10 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank


Overall results after six stages

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 19:29:22secs

2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana

3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:19

4 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana 0:00:23

5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:31

6 Bradley Wiggins (Gbr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:38

7 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:52

8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:16

9 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:22

10 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:29