Vincenzo Nibali closing in for the overall victory at the Tirreno-Adriatico
Vincenzo Nibali’s second place finish during the sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico has made him a favourite overall contender for the race.
He was at the third overall position before the start of the 181 kilometre stage 6 of the event.
Christopher Horner of Team RadioShack-Nissan was leading the category with a total time of 24 hours, 48 minutes and 39 seconds.
Roman Kreuziger of Team Astana was 5 seconds behind at the second position whereas Nibali had a total deficit of twelve seconds over Horner.
The Italian rode brilliantly during the sixth stage of the race and managed to cut down the overall lead to half.
Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver of Team Katusha grabbed the stage with Nibali at the second position.
Danilo Di Luca, Christopher Horner and Rinaldo Nocentini secured the third, fourth and fifth positions.
"Today's second place makes me almost as happy as a victory," Nibali briefed after crossing the finish-line".
He added, "I gained six important seconds for the general classification, and that makes me even more confident for the time trial tomorrow".
"It's clear numerical advantage and above all a psychological one. Horner is the leader but I think the man to beat is Kreuziger," he concluded.
The 27-year-old picked his first win of the 2012 season at the 5th stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico. He finished second overall at the Tour of Oman and also registered a stage 5 win at the race.
Nibali holds as many as eight grand tour appearances during his career, with four Giros, two Tours and two Vuelta a Espana participations under his belt.
He succeeded during the 2010 version of the Spanish Grand Tour, which is considered as the biggest victory of his career till now.
Vincenzo briefed that his performance during the sixth stage has given him a huge psychological advantage over the main competitors.
"I think for me, getting the seconds I did only fuels that 'psychological advantage' that comes with hunting someone down," he said.
He is now eyeing the 9.3 kilometre individual time trial stage 7 of the race and is certain to challenge Horner and Kreuziger to ride the top podium spot on the final day of racing in Italy.
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