The 2007 Eneco Tour, which used to be known as the Benelux Tour is held from August 22 - 29 and takes the riders through Belgium and the Netherlands.
Affectionately referred to as the mini-Amstel Gold stage, Stage 6 was a rolling affair taking in a few of the climbs of the Amstel Gold race covering a distance of 177.4km from Beek to Landgraaf in The Netherlands.
It was destined to be a momentous stage in terms of the overall General Classification thanks to a crash after 44km that involved the majority of the field and would force the abandonment of race leader Nick Nuyens (Cofidis) as well as Hervé Duclos-Lassalle (Cofidis) and Anthony Geslin (Bouygues Telecom). Also involved in the crash was second placed Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) and although he was cut and bruised, was able to remount and continue on.
The stage was won by Pablo Lastras Garcia (Caisse d'Epargne) after he managed to get himself into the big break of the day with 10 others. Their lead grew out to a maximum of just over 7 minutes before it began to disintegrate and the peloton began to make their inroads.
Lastras, along with Anders Lund (Team CSC) had managed to escape from the remaining lead group by the time they reached the finish line for the first time. This marked around 33km remaining and they had gotten themselves a 42 second lead over a chase group of 4 with their lead to the peloton reduced to 3' 26".
Lastras finally moved clear of Lund inside the closing 10km (I think - for some reason there was absolutely no vision of the 2 leaders over the final 30km). By the time the finish line was in sight Lund plus the chase group had Lastras in their sights but he had just enough of a gap to make it across the line.
The most noteworthy effort of the day was by Maarten Tjallingii (Skil - Shimano) who was the driving force behind the original break and then, when the hard work had to be done to catch Lastras and Lund, he was the one who put the big ones in to try to close it down. For his efforts he was outsprinted by the riders who benefited from his hard work. Ain't it always the way.
With Nick Nuyens abandoning today, Thomas Dekker has taken over the race lead with José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) in second at 4" down and David Millar (Saunier Duval) in third a further 2" behind.
It all comes down to the Individual Time Trial tomorrow...
Stage 6 Results (Top 10)
1 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 4.15.28
2 Steven Caethoven (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - Topsport Vlaanderen
3 Anders Lund (Den) Team CSC
4 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) Crédit Agricole
5 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil - Shimano 0.03
6 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 0.13
7 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team
8 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Team Milram
9 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Quickstep - Innergetic
10 Matthew Goss (Aus) Team CSC
Overall GC Standings (Top 10)
1 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Rabobank 25.28.48
2 José Ivan Gutierrez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.04
3 David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval - Prodir 0.06
4 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Predictor - Lotto 0.15
5 Leif Hoste (Bel) Predictor - Lotto 0.27
6 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Rabobank 0.31
7 Bram Tankink (Ned) Quickstep - Innergetic 0.38
8 Paul Martens (Ger) Skil - Shimano 0.39
9 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil - Shimano 0.40
10 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Rabobank
Points Classification
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile Team 74 pts
2 Luciano André Pagliarini Mendonca (Bra) Saunier Duval - Prodir 60
3 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 51
Mountains Classification
1 Martin Pedersen (Den) Team CSC 15 pts
2 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Team Milram 15
3 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 8
Teams
1 Predictor-Lotto 76.27.29
2 Rabobank 0.19
3 Caisse d'Epargne 0.48
