Italian Lorenzo Bernucci of the Fassa Bortolo team won the dramatic sixth stage of the Tour de France held over 199km between Troyes and Nancy, which almost ended in carnage in Nancy on Thursday.
American Lance Armstrong retained the race leader’s yellow jersey, which he is bidding to win for a seventh consecutive time — and he will be thankful he was nowhere near the front of the peloton in the rain-soaked final kilometre.
”It’s always dangerous when it’s raining like that,” Armstrong said, admitting he had been helped by the radio advice of his team manager, Johan Bruyneel.
”We always have a good look at the stages when they have a difficult finale. But Johan was telling us through the radio earpieces about the dangerous sections in the end, telling us to turn left or right. It was a dangerous stage.”
While Armstrong spent his second day in the yellow jersey, Bernucci (26) came over the finish line alone to claim what was one of the most opportunistic wins of his short professional career.
He finished just ahead of T-Mobile’s Alexandre Vinokourov, who was on his way to victory but was slowed by the crash of Frenchman Christophe Mengin, whose bid for victory after a long breakaway ended in agony on a tight right-hand corner.
Vinokourov’s bid also ended when he rounded the corner and had to slow down to avoid hitting the fallen Frenchman, whom he had attacked in the final kilometre of the stage.
Taking his right foot off his pedal and putting it on the ground to avoid falling, Vinokourov saw Bernucci — who had taken the corner more tightly but still managed to stay in control — surge ahead.
Bernucci, who has never won a stage on the Tour, practically assured his win on the 600m home straight.
Behind the 31-year-old Vinokourov, a massive pile-up ensued, taking down about six riders including Stuart O’Grady and Baden Cooke — all of whom practically crashed into Mengin.
Both O’Grady and Cooke got back on their bikes and finished the stage, and none of the main contenders for the yellow jersey got in harm’s way.
Vinokourov, meanwhile, managed to steal a yard on Armstrong with his second-place finish behind Bernucci.
The Kazakh, who finished third on the Tour in 2003 and could prove to be the American’s main challenger later in the race, took bonus seconds at the finish and is now third place in the general classification at one minute and two seconds behind Armstrong.
Mengin, meanwhile, had a tragic end to the day after an enterprising attack in the company of three other riders, with whom he built a maximum lead of more than eight minutes on the peloton.
”I feel more like a boxer after a fight than a cyclist,” said Mengin, whose left eye was black and swollen after he was hit by one of the many bikes that ended up crashing into him.
”I’ve got a bit of a black eye where I think a brake lever or gear shifter hit it, and I’ve got a sore hip on my left side.”
The 36-year-old Frenchman, who rides for the Francaise des Jeux team, had tried to attack earlier in the day and finally to escape the peloton’s clutches over some tricky, hilly terrain that was made more difficult by bouts of heavy sweeping rain and wind.
Mengin decided to go it alone in the final 20km, although his task was not made any easier by the difficulty of the undulating terrain — or the tricky finish in Nancy, which featured a number of tight bends.
With only 20km to go, Mengin and his group held only a 1:30 lead on the chasing peloton. He then attacked, leaving Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu and young Italian Mauro Gerosa in his wake.
Mengin forged ahead, but his bid had already come to an end before his fall within the final kilometre when it became clear that Vinokourov was going to catch him. — Sapa-AFP