photo credits @ Le Tour
Team KATUSHA’s Ilnur Zakarin climbed with the peloton’s best during stage 6 of today’s Paris-Nice, biding his time and showing patience before giving one last effort to win atop La Madone d’Utelle.
“I am really happy with this victory. I was preparing for this race at altitude, so I was able to get a good form. I wanted to fight for a good result in this race. Today I knew it would be hard, but I felt really good today. The team was super and I felt the support in every moment. Especially from Pavel Kochetkov, who helped me a lot, and Michael Mørkøv and Simon Špilak in the final. I knew there were two hard moments in this climb at 6 km to go and 500 meters to go. So I just did my best to pass it and to save the energy for last few hundred meters, where I gave my best. Tomorrow is another hard day. I am third now and I want to save my podium place. We will do our best tomorrow! – vowed Ilnur Zakarin.
The Finale
On the upper slopes of the climb, Zakarin was able to respond to all the moves from the elite group of climbers, including Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte of BMC.
Under the 1 kilometer to go banner, Porte attacked first but Zakarin was right on the wheel, and when the group came back together and Contador showed his hand with 400 meters to ride, Ilnur Zakarin once again followed the move. Coming around the last corner he moved wide to the left of Geraint Thomas and passed the Sky rider to earn victory by just over a bike length with a time of 4:45. Thomas was on the same time with Zakarin, with Contador at 1-second behind.
Earlier Highlights
The day’s first breakaway containing Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida), Cyril Gautier (Direct Energie), Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step), Gregory Rast (Trek-Segafredo), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), Florian Vachon (Fortuneo–Vital Concept) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), managed to open a sizable leas of 2:25 over the peloton.,
However, as the breakaway group entered into the final 35 kilometers, with the peloton at their backdoor, Duchesne decided to commence a lone attack and set out on his own.
Meanwhile, the rest of the escapees were eventually swept up by the chase, while Duchesne continued to stay out front – clinging to a slight lead of less than a minute.
But, the Direct Energie rider’s hope of seizing the stage honors were soon brought to a close during the final 15 kilometers, as he too was reclaimed by the peloton.
Stage 6 Results RUS 1 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA) 4:45:11 GBR 2 THOMAS, Geraint (SKY) ESP 3 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF) + 1 AUS 4 PORTE, Richie (BMC RACING) + 7 COL 5 HENAO MONTOYA, Sergio Luis (SKY) + 10 GBR 6 YATES, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 20 POR 7 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 31 FRA 8 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) ESP 9 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) FRA 10 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO SOUDAL) FRA 11 JEANNESSON, Arnold (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) NED 12 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT – ALPECIN) ESP 13 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) + 49 NED 14 KELDERMAN, Wilco (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) + 55 SLO 15 SPILAK, Simon (KATUSHA) + 1:48 USA 16 CRADDOCK, Lawson (CANNONDALE) + 2:15 FRA 17 ROLLAND, Pierre (CANNONDALE) NED 18 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) ITA 19 ROSA, Diego (ASTANA) + 2:21 NED 20 WESTRA, Lieuwe (ASTANA) ESP 21 SANCHEZ GIL, Luis Leon (ASTANA) + 2:27 FRA 22 CHEREL, Mikael (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 2:38 ESP 23 DE LA CRUZ MELGAREJO, David (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 3:00 ESP 24 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) + 3:21 BEL 25 WELLENS, Tim (LOTTO SOUDAL) RSA 26 MEINTJES, Louis (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 3:43 BEL 27 SERRY, Pieter (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 4:27 NED 28 SLAGTER, Tom Jelte (CANNONDALE) + 4:46 ESP 29 HERRADA LOPEZ, José (MOVISTAR) + 5:05 POL 30 MAJKA, Rafal (TINKOFF) + 6:03 FRA 31 CALMEJANE, Lilian (DIRECT ENERGIE) + 6:13 DEN 32 SÖRENSEN, Chris Anker (FORTUNEO – VITAL CONCEPT) + 6:15 GBR 33 SWIFT, Ben (SKY) BEL 34 DEVENYNS, Dries (IAM CYCLING) + 6:55 GER 35 GESCHKE, Simon (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 7:52 EST 36 KANGERT, Tanel (ASTANA) + 9:41 NZL 37 BENNETT, George (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) + 9:47 USA 38 BOSWELL, Ian (SKY) + 10:42 ESP 39 FERNANDEZ CRUZ, Delio (DELKO MARSEILLE PROVENCE KTM) + 11:02 ESP 40 FERNANDEZ, Ruben (MOVISTAR) + 12:04
General Classification after Stage 6 GBR 1 THOMAS, Geraint (SKY) 24:10:26 ESP 2 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF) + 15 RUS 3 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA) + 20 AUS 4 PORTE, Richie (BMC RACING) + 21 NED 5 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 32 ESP 6 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) + 37 COL 7 HENAO MONTOYA, Sergio Luis (SKY) + 39 GBR 8 YATES, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 44 FRA 9 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 51 FRA 10 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 1:00 POR 11 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 1:07 FRA 12 JEANNESSON, Arnold (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) + 1:09 NED 13 KELDERMAN, Wilco (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) + 1:12 ESP 14 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) + 1:39 NED 15 WESTRA, Lieuwe (ASTANA) + 2:32 USA 16 CRADDOCK, Lawson (CANNONDALE) + 2:42 ESP 17 SANCHEZ GIL, Luis Leon (ASTANA) + 2:54 FRA 18 ROLLAND, Pierre (CANNONDALE) + 3:05 BEL 19 WELLENS, Tim (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 3:36 ESP 20 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) + 3:39
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