NANCY, France, 8 July 2005 — Italy’s Lorenzo Bernucci steered clear of a big pile-up on the final bend to win a rain-soaked sixth stage of the Tour de France yesterday.
The stage looked set for a mass sprint finish after the 199-km run from Troyes, only for riders to start skidding out of contention in a treacherous final kilometer in Nancy.
Bernucci, 25, took advantage of the confusion to finish on his own, ahead of Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov. Germany’s Robert Foerster was third, seven seconds behind with the main bunch.
Six-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong avoided the crash and finished in the main bunch in the same time as Foerster. The American will take his overall leader’s yellow jersey to Germany in today’s seventh stage, which ends in Karlsruhe.
France’s Christophe Mengin, who had led for more than 160 km and was bidding to win his second Tour stage in his hometown, was the first to crash into a barrier near the finish line.
The front of the chasing peloton then piled up in turn, a crash which involved about 20 riders. including the Tour’s best sprinters — Belgian Tom Boonen and Australian Robbie McEwen.
“We were all very nervous with the rain and the turns and the crashes at the finish,” said Armstrong, whose team manager Johan Bruyneel had warned him and his teammates of the dangers.
It was Bernucci’s first success since his professional debut three years ago.
“It’s my first victory, I’m very happy. I did not expect it,” said the Fassa Bortolo rider.
“When I reached the finish line, I realized there was nobody else and the victory was mine. When I saw the others fall, I gave it my all.”
Second place shifted Vinokourov, who came third in the Tour two years ago, into third place in the organizers’ final overall standings, moving him down from a provisional second slot.
The Kazakh rider is 1min 2sec behind Armstrong, whose teammate and compatriot George Hincapie is second overall, 55 seconds off the pace.
As in previous days, a small group of riders tried their luck to avoid another mass sprint at the finish.
This time, they were Dutchman Karsten Kroon, France’s Mengin and Stephane Auge, Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu and Italian Mauro Gerosa, who broke clear of the main bunch after 38 kilometers. In heavy rain over eastern France, the five took a lead of eight minutes and 20 seconds before the pack, led by the sprint specialist teams and Danish outfit CSC, launched the chase.
While the main group caught four of the breakaways in the last of three climbs on the stage, Mengin, who lives in the Nancy region, launched his attack in the hope of finishing on his own and repeating his stage win in Freiburg in 1997.
But just as he was about to be caught, the 37-year-old rider slipped at the last corner.
More rain is forecast for today’s Tour run into Germany.
