McEwen takes stage six of tour with late charge
The green jacket holder emerged from the peleton in a dramatic late run to earn the 11th stage win of his career. However, the Australian remains 12 seconds behind Belgium’s Tom Boonen in the chase for the yellow jersey.
Quickstep rider Boonen has yet to win a stage, but finished third yesterday to preserve his hold on the overall lead from McEwen, with the latter’s compatriot Michael Rogers third for the T-Mobile team.
Rabobank’s Oscar Freire, winner of stage five, recovered from a puncture early in the stage to finish sixth, leaving the Spaniard fourth in the overall race standings, less than a second ahead of American George Hincapie.
McEwen’s stage win was his third of this year’s event, and he said: “It’s the best tour I’ve ever ridden up to this point. Last year I had three wins in the first 13 stages, and this year we’re only at stage six and I’ve had three.”
The 34-year-old revealed that he was confident of victory after his performance in the recent Giro d’Italia. “I won the second, fourth, and sixth stages in the Giro and I won the second and fourth here, so I told my wife there couldn’t be any other way than that I was going to win today,” he said.
He paid tribute to his team, and in particular Geert Steegmans, who led the surge which allowed McEwen to claim victory.
A breakaway group consisting of Magnus Backstedt, Anthony Geslin and Florent Brard had led for over 100km before being hauled back by the peloton with just 5km remaining.
At one stage, the trio led by over five minutes, but the peloton steadily closed the gap to set up a grandstand finish.
The Lampre Fondital team appeared to be leading the fightback and looked poised to pick up a stage victory until Steegmans paved the way for McEwen to come through.
“It was great work by the team,” said McEwen. “We put a guy up to make sure the break came back.
“Steegmans did the same perfect job that he did in stage four — he was super strong. It’s a credit to my team — the fun just doesn’t stop!”
Jerome Pineau extended his lead in the race for the polka dot jersey, awarded to the King of the Mountains, to 11 points over David de la Fuente with third place at the summit of the Cote de la Huniere climb.
There was no change at the top of the sprint standings, with the day’s points in that field dominated by Brard, who opened his account with 12 points from the three intermediate sprint stages.
The tour moves on to Saint-Gregoire for Saturday’s short stage, which spans the 52km.
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