Millar time yet to come as break fails to pay off

BRITAIN’S David Millar came agonisingly close to a third Tour de France stage victory of his career as Norway’s Thor Hushovd won a sprint finish to win Stage Six yesterday.

Millar, who rides for Garmin-Slipstream, was part of an early three-man breakaway group that had grown to four before he launched a solo bid for the win with 29km remaining.

The Scot was swallowed up by the peloton just over a kilometre from the line and Hushovd took the wheel of Oscar Freire before powering through to win the 181km stage from Girona to Barcelona.

Freire finished second while Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas and Germany’s Gerald Ciolek – the other two riders to compete in the sprint finish – ended third and fourth respectively.

Fabian Cancellara was 10th to retain the yellow jersey while the other big guns high up in the general classification – including Astana duo Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador – were among the first group in the peloton.

Cervelo’s Hushovd did not quite do enough to take the green jersey off Britain’s Mark Cavendish, who came home in 16th place.

Cavendish is now just one point ahead of Hushovd while Stephane Auge, part of the early breakaway involving Millar and Sylvain Chavanel, takes the polka-dot jersey off Jussi Veikkanen.

“I rode more with my heart than my head,” said 32-year-old Millar.

There were plenty of thrills and spills on a day when conditions were tough owing to intermittent spells of rain. In the final eight kilometres there were two big crashes that split the peloton. Belgium’s Tom Boonen was involved in the second and he struggled to finish. Hushovd admitted it had been hard going, saying: “It was a nervy stage, it rained, the roads were very slippery. Fortunately I was able to be in front of it all. It was hard for us, the sprinters, to keep up. It is the first victory for our Cervelo team this Tour. We have reached our first objective.”

It was Hushovd’s seventh stage win in his Tour career but it looked for all the world that Millar was going to claim his third. The Scot shot clear of Auge, Chavanel and Spain’s Amets Txurruka with 29km remaining. It was a bold move but he quickly opened up a 20-second gap, with only home rider Txurruka giving chase belatedly, and the Briton went up the final climb, Cote de la Conreria, alone.

Auge and Chavanel were caught by the peloton with 24km left and 14km later, so too was Txurruka, who had been briefly joined by Remi Pauriol.

At that stage, Millar was 70 seconds clear of the peloton. Maintaining that gap would have earned him the yellow jersey but that was unlikely. He was reeled in at the foot of the climb to the finish and overtaken with 1.3km left.

Defending champion Carlos Sastre was involved in a crash early in the day but he was fine to continue. The same cannot be said of Rabobank’s Dutchman Robert Gesink, who broke his wrist in a crash on Wednesday and has been ruled out of the Tour. Today sees the first stage in the mountains.