Stage 6

The road

At the start

The Cresta del Gallo, then Murcia

Nothing moved in Lorca: Gilbert still leads by ten seconds from Antón and Rodríguez. Today is the shortest road stage so far at 150 kilometres and it keeps all its difficulty for the end — the Cresta del Gallo, a steep second-category climb cresting fourteen kilometres from Murcia, with a narrow, badly surfaced descent behind it. A break went clear here last year and was never seen again.

How it was won

1. 116 km to go

   The Cresta del Gallo empties the race

   The break arrives at the day's only climb with under a minute and comes apart on it; Bichot survives alone to halfway. Behind, Katusha set a steady tempo up the narrow seven-kilometre ascent that leaves about fifty riders in the front group, Karpets first over the top.

2. 214 km to go

   Pozzato and Gilbert go down the descent

   Filippo Pozzato attacks early on the descent and the red jersey himself jumps onto it. The pair are hauled back with fourteen kilometres left, and Dmitry Fofonov counters immediately.

3. 38 km to go

   Fofonov runs out of road

   The Kazakh solos off the bottom of the mountain but has ten flat kilometres into Murcia to defend and no chance of doing it. He is caught with 7.5 to go, and the sprint is on.

4. 4At the line

   Hushovd, out of seventy-one

   Katusha and Cervélo hold the tempo for Pozzato and Thor Hushovd, and the Norwegian champion is far too fast for what is left. Bennati second, Bole third, and Gilbert sixth on the stage keeps the red jersey another day.

The result