Lutsenko secures maiden stage win
MONT AIGOUAL, France: Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko claimed his maiden victory on the Tour de France when he won the sixth stage, a 191km trek from Le Teil yesterday, as the top guns again delayed the fight for the general classification.
Astana rider Lutsenko, a former under23 world champion, prevailed from an eightman breakaway at the top of Mont Aigoual to add to his 2017 Vuelta stage win.
Spaniard Jesus Herrada took second place, 55sec behind while Belgian Greg van Avermaet was third, 2min 15sec off the pace.
Briton Adam Yates retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after staying tucked in the main peloton, which crossed the line with a deficit of 2min 53sec.
‘‘We talked about it in the team bus this morning and we agreed that it was a stage that suited me,’’ Lutsenko, who broke clear in the punishing ascent to the Col de la Lusette, a 11.7km climb at an average gradient of 7.3%, said.
Behind him, the main favourites did not use the ascent to test each other, leaving defending champion Egan Bernal’s Ineos team to set a moderate pace.
‘‘We knew that this climb was tricky; it was a pretty bad surface. I think we climbed at our own speed and saved energy. We just tried to stay safe,’’ Ineos domestique Michal Kwiatkowski said.
‘‘Everyone is keeping their powder dry and is saving energy for the next days,’’ Yates, who was never threatened throughout the stage, said.
Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, third overall, suffered an untimely puncture in the climb up to the Col de la Lusette but managed to regain his place in the peloton easily, thanks to the bunch’s slow pace.
The only sparkle came in the final metres, when Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe produced a brief attack to regain 1sec losing the yellow jersey to Yates following a 20sec penalty for illegal feeding on Thursday.
The best of the New Zealanders yesterday was George
Bennett who finished 50th to be 3min 21sec off the lead. Jack Bauert was 125th and Sam Bewley 146th — both are 31min 9sec behind the leader. — Reuters