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Stage 6 - 2010 Tour of Britain
September 11-18; UCI 2.1 | Home Page for News & Reports
Stage 6: Kings Lynn to Great Yarmouth (118 miles, Sept 16)
HTC-Colombia's Andre Greipel took his second stage victory in East Anglia after a flat-out chase across Norfolk. A long two man break containing Cameron Meyer and Jaroslav Marycz stayed away for much of the stage, but was caught with a heartbreaking 1km to go, setting up another seaside bunch sprint.
After three days dominated by challenging climbs in first south Wales and then the south-west, Stage six saw the Tour of Britain decamp for a cross-country journey to the flat expanses of East Anglia. The 118 mile stage started at King's Lynn in the north-west corner of Norfolk, passing through the royal estate of Sandringham and following the beautiful north Norfolk coast through Wells-next-the-Sea and Sherringham, before heading inland at Cromer, to follow the path of the River Bure towards Norwich.
With Norwich city centre negotiated, the route then took riders back towards the coast, through the famous Norfolk Broads, to its final destination in the coastal resort of Great Yarmouth. Three intermediate sprints were up for grabs in Sandringham, Wells and Norwich, while KoM points were to be had at Burnham Deepdale near Wells, Beacon Hill near Cromer and Mousehold Heath near Norwich.
Below: Exclusive race action photos from within the race from start to finish!
Just as with previous stages, things were lively from the off, with several riders having an early poke as soon as the race was deneutralised. However, no-one could make anything stick in the face of the fast rolling peloton. The first sprint came at Sandringham and the ever combative Jonny Hoogerland (VAC) grabbed top points ahead of team-mate Michael Golas and Sky's Bradley Wiggins.
No doubt relishing the flatter terrain, the peloton was making lightning progress, nullifying any breakaway attempts, strung out in a long line as the race passed through Hunstanton, which was thronged with spectators. The race passed through Burnham Market and the pace went even higher, aided and abetted by a strong tailwind.
Meyer and Marycz race past one of many historic buildings on the course.
Sprint number two saw Jonny Hooglerland again in the mix, pipped to top points by Sky's Greg Henderson. Despite the ferocious pace, Peter Willams (MPY) emerged from the pack but gained less than 100metres before being consumed by the slightly diminished 83 rider pack - sadly Garmin's Dan Martin was a non-starter due to illness, after being influential in a number of the previous stages. However, it wasn't all bad news for the Garmin team, as the talented Australian Cameron Meyer attacked with Jeremy Hunt (CTT), going clear and forcing a split in the chasing peloton in what transpired to be the first big move of the day.
After around 10 minutes dangling off the front Hunt gave up and fell back into the group, leaving Meyer to go it alone. However, the Aussie wasn't on his lonesome for long. Meyer was joined by Saxo Bank's Jaroslav Marycz and the pair forged ahead as the peloton seemed to lose the scent, allowing Meyer and Marycz to extend their lead to over six minutes as the stage passed the two hour mark, having covered an astonishing 58 miles. The peloton finally responded when the gap yawned to over seven minutes, with Sky whipping up the pace on the front.
With the Sky triumvirate of Steve Cummings, Matt Hayman and Bradley Wiggins at the head of things, the Meyer/Marycz double act began to be reeled in. HTC-Colombia joined the Sky trio at the front. However, despite the combined efforts of these two big-hitting teams, the gap stabilised at around 5 minutes 30 seconds as the race entered the outskirts of Norwich.
Jeremy Hunt had a real good go at trying to go clear with Meyer.
The race flew through the centre of Norwich greeted by massive crowds, with Meyer and Marycz respectively taking the one-two in the intermediate sprint and also the KoM points at Mousehold Heath. However, the gap had tumbled to 3mins 30 with Sky still determined to reel in the escapees as the race passed through the village of Horning.
With every kilometre Meyer and Marycz's lead tumbled and by 10km to go the pair had a slender 50 second advantage over the chasing group as the stage approached its final destination in Great Yarmouth. With around 1km to go, the breakaway was finally caught and it was Andre Greipel who nosed ahead of the bunch to give everyone déjà-vu, by taking his second seafront win of the 2010 Tour.
Michael Albasini finished safely in the bunch with the same time as the winner and retained the overall leader's jersey, 1min 26secs ahead of Vacansoleil's Borut Bozic.
Michael Albasini sprays some champagne about after retaining his yellow jersey.
Rider Reactions
Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta Team Video
Cameron Meyer: “It was a real fast start today and took a long time for the break to go and I went with a lot of moves wanting to get in the break. I went with Jeremy (Hunt) and I thought if I hold out here long enough, they’ll sit up. One Saxo Bank guy came across and that was good although I would like to have had a few more. We rode really well today and it is quite annoying to get caught with one K to go. All I needed was one more hesitation from the bunch and I could have won”.
“I gave it everything and a good crack and I left it out on the road and that is all I can do.”
“It was mostly tailwind all day with a little bit of cross wind and that made for a real fast start and fast race. We have done 190k in four hours so it was fast. A little bit more tailwind for us two out front would have been good! There are still two stages to go and maybe I can go up the road again”.
“Today was perfect with a flat to rolling road and a little bit of a tailwind so it was good for time trialling (Cameron is the Aussie TT Champ). I had a good Saxo Bank guy with me who can time trial as well so we worked really well together, it was just unfortunate to get caught with a K to go.”
“I think this is the third stage where a Garmin rider has won the most aggressive award. We have been unfortunate not to get a podium result but we have a team of attacking aggressive riders, that is what we come here to do and put our hand up as one of the strong teams to go up the road and give it a crack.”
Motorpoint/Marshals Pasta rider Pete Williams on the attack through the grounds of a Stately Home enroute to Yarmouth.
Pete Smith (Raleigh): Coming in with Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas was Lantern Rouge, young Aussie Pete Smith (http://www.petenews.com/). “That’s not bad company to come in with. I tell you that was ferocious today. That was fast. It took about an hour and a half for the break to go and it was just manic, unbelievably fast. We had the wind behind us but everyone was hanging on for dear life. I wasn’t only running out of gears but petrol too!”
Andrei Grepiel: Stage winner from Columbia HTC, Andre Grepiel did so with only three quarters of his team and as his teammate Mark Renshaw said on Twitter, Another fast day here in TOB. 75kms of attacking in the start. Controlling with four riders is very very hard. Great to win with Griepel again. The stage winner himself attended the press conference afterwards and said “It was hard today”.
“We were not so fresh and we only have four riders left in the race after two of them stop with sickness. It was a good powerful beginning from the team, we were in the breakways and we were also happy that only two riders were away and were able to sit on as the other riders chased the breakaway down.”
“At the end, we were focused on the sprint, and Bert Grabsch and Mark Renshaw give me good position and it was quite a good lead out from Mark Renshaw again. I think we can be really happy with this victory. Sky had to chase the breakaway down so there was no-one left to do a leadout so we were just sitting on and with 2k to go, we went and yeah, it was good.”
On losing Tony Martin and Pinotti, Grepiel says “Tony is like a locomotive, once he is riding his bike as fast as possible, he can never stop so it is a really big thing that we lost him. Pinotti was sick before the race started. But, I hope were are able to defend the jersey all the way to London. ”
One of the many groups that managed to get clear for a short while but the peloton was in no mood to let anything to go and was lined out for much of the first two hours.
Zero K is passed and a rider from the An Post team goes on the attack marked by Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky.
The crowds today were amazing, most notably in Norwich but also at the seaside resorts as well.
Brief Results
Stage 6 Result
1 Andre Greipel Team HTC-Columbia 4:09:05
2 Borut Bozic Vacansoleil Pro Cycling st
3 Lucas Sebastien Haedo Team Saxo Bank st
4 Greg Henderson Sky Pro Cycling Team st
5 Pierpaolo De Negri ISD-Neri Giambenini st
6 Stijn Neirynck Topsport Vlaanderen st
7 Koen De Kort Skil-Shimano st
8 Marco Frapporti Colnago-CSF Inox st
9 Robert Wagner Skil-Shimano st
10 Edward Clancy Motorpoint-Marshalls Pasta st
General Classification after Stage 6
1 Michael Albasini Team HTC-Columbia 24:02:14
2 Borut Bozic Vacansoleil Pro Cycling at 1:26
3 Richie Porte Team Saxo Bank at 1:27
4 Greg Henderson Sky Pro Cycling Team at 1:33
5 Johnny Hoogerland Vacansoleil Pro Cycling at 1:37
6 Patrick Sinkewitz ISD-Neri Giambenini at 2:08
7 Christian Meier Garmin-Transitions at 2:30
8 Robert Partridge Endura Racing at 2:32
9 Koen De Kort Skil-Shimano at 2:43
10 Marco Frapporti Colnago-CSF Inox at 3:36
