Joaquim Rodriguez wins sixth stage, Bradley Wiggins retains lead in Criterium du Dauphine 2011
Katusha team’s Joaquim Rodriguez showed his brilliant performance in the sixth stage of Criterium du Dauphine 2011 on Saturday, June 11.
The race started in Les Gets and ended in Le Collet d’Allevard. The 32-year-old, Joaquim took a total of 5 hours, 12 minutes and 47 seconds to cover the distance of 192.5 kilometres.
After finishing the stage, Spanish professional road cyclists told the media, "I didn't time my attacks at the right moment in the other races, at 5km today it was the ideal moment."
Recently, Joaquim won first stage of Tour Basque Country and grabbed second spot in Amstel Gold Race. He also took second place in La Fleche Wallonne.
Robert Gesink of Rabobank was runner-up with 31 seconds behind the Spaniard. Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Lotto grabbed third spot with the difference of 39 seconds.
Cadel Evans of BMC tried his best to maintain his pace but he failed and took ninth place with 1 minutes and 9 seconds adrift.
This stage is difficult for the riders because it contain six mountains. After 80 kilometres, the group of eight riders made their first breakaway including, Andrey Amador, Sandy Casar, Mauro Finetto, Juan Manuel Garate, Cyril Gautier, Egoi Martinez, Kevin
Seeldrayers and Yuriy Trofimov.
All of them built advantage of four-minutes over the peloton with Sky team maintaining the pace at the front. Several cows strayed and caused some cyclists to crash including Mikel Landa of Euskaltel who fell hard and had to leave the stage.
All the riders were caught by the peloton in the final climb of the race. Robert Gesink tried his best to catch the Spanish rider but Joaquim maintain his pace and with the help of his team he crossed the finish line without any difficulty.
Bradley Wiggins retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey with the timing of 23 hours, 16 minutes and 11 seconds. Cadel Evans was runner-up with 1 minutes and 26 seconds behind Bradley.
Alexandre Vinokourov of Pro Astana finished third with the difference of 1 minute and 52 seconds.
Leonardo Fabio Duque won the title of King of Mountain (KOM) with 45 points ahead of Joaquim and Martinez. Jerome Coppel won the title of Best Young Riders ahead of Ben Hermans.
The final stage will start in Pontcharra and end in La Toussuire. All the riders will cover the distance of 117.5 kilometres.
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