The weather for today's stage really set the stage for an interesting finish. 600m in front of the finish line, a combination of the wet road, a 90 degree corner, and crosswalk paint yielded some precarious conditions for a final sprint. As might be expected, this did in fact cause a bit of a wreck right before today's finish. Some riders were able to slow down enough to take the turn without falling, and some actually unclipped and put a foot down to stay upright, but many riders did completely wipe out at the turn, and many riders were held up a bit because of the pileup at the turn.
In the end, Lorenzo Bernucci of the Fassa Bortolo team was able to stay upright and power down the straight after the turn, taking the stage. According to the rules of the TdF, because the wreck happened in the final 3km of the stage, everybody in the main pack (that was about 7 seconds back from the leaders) will get the same time--that is, the winning time plus 7 seconds.
Stage 6 Top 3 Finishers
1. Lorenzo Bernucci (ITA), Fassa Bortolo, 4:12:52
2. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ), T-Mobile, +00:00
3. Robert Forster (GER), Gerolsteiner, +00:07
Today's result shakes up the top of the general classification just a bit, as noted below.
Top 5 General Classification
1. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 17:58:11
2. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, +00:55
3. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ), T-Mobile, +01:02
4. Jens Voight (GER), CSC, +01:04
5. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, +01:07
Of note, Ivan Basso is currently 9th in the GC, at +01:26, and Jan Ullrich is 13th at +01:36.
(Image from http://www.capture-the-peloton.com)
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