Cancellara ruins Martin’s one-man show, Morkov surges

Michael Morkov wins

Stage 6 of the 2013 Vuelta a España from Guijuelo to Caceres was expected by many to being boring but it came down to an intense suspense and a marvelous spectacle instead. Tony Martin’s solo breakaway from start to finish was ruined only fourty metres before the end. The German time triallist was reined in by his predecessor as the world’s best rider against the clock Fabian Cancellara whose slipstream was used at perfection by former track star Michael Morkov. The Danish national road race champion unexpectedly awarded his team Saxo-Tinkoff with a second stage win in six days of the Vuelta after Nicolas Roche did so on stage 2.

Prior to the start, Italian time trial champion Marco Pinotti stated that it was a good day to escape from the bunch in order to prepare for the world championship of his speciality, but Martin was quicker than him. The BMC rider tried to bridge the gap but didn’t make it. After 31km of racing, Martin enjoyed the tailwind and got an advantage of 7.23 for himself. At that point, the Orica-GreenEdge team of the previous day’s winner Michael Matthews set the pace of the bunch to maintain the difference around seven minutes.

Tony Martin

With 18km to go, Martin’s lead was less than a minute. Regrouping looked obvious but the Omega Pharma-Quick Step powerful rouleur had kept some energy for the end. He played so well with the chasers that he was very close to winning. As the supremacy for time trialling remains a quarrel between Martin and Cancellara, the Swiss rider was keen to catch his rival. He crossed the line in third place behind Morkov and Max Richeze (Lampre-Merida) who finished second for the second day in a row. As he came sixth, Matthews moved into the lead in the points classification and will wear the green jersey during stage 7 from Almendralejo to Mairena del Aljarafe (205.9 km). Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) remains the race overall leader.

Guijuelo – Caceres 175,0 kms. 29/08/2013 17:28:19

1º 203 MORKOV, Michael DEN TST 3:54:15 10″

2º 137 RICHEZE, Maximiliano Ariel ARG LAM m.t. 6″

3º 181 CANCELLARA, Fabian SUI RLT m.t. 4″

4º 113 FARRAR, Tyler USA GRS m.t. 4″

5º 214 FLECHA, Juan Antonio ESP VCD m.t.

6º 178 MATTHEWS, Michael AUS OGE m.t.

7º 161 MARTIN, Tony GER OPQ m.t. 6″

8º 164 MEERSMAN, Gianni BEL OPQ m.t.

9º 51 GILBERT, Philippe BEL BMC m.t.

10º 43 BROWN, Graeme AUS BEL m.t.

11º 86 PETIT, Adrien FRA COF m.t.

12º 66 LASCA, Francesco ITA CJR m.t.

13º 192 BOASSON HAGEN, Edvald NOR SKY m.t.

14º 72 BOIVIN, Guillaume CAN CAN m.t.

15º 28 SINKELDAM, Ramon NED ARG m.t.

16º 158 SCHORN, Daniel AUT TNE m.t.

17º 108 SOUPE, Geoffrey FRA FDJ m.t.

18º 144 HENDERSON, Gregory NZL LTB m.t.

19º 128 PAOLINI, Luca ITA KAT m.t.

20º 47 TANNER, David AUS BEL m.t.