ENECO Stage 6: Dumoulin Takes Over, Stybar Stalking

Great race today, with splits all over. I don't have time for a proper re-telling, but I can tell you that things got very tricky on the final climb of the Cote de la Redoute. Tom Dumoulin of Argos-Shimano was in the virtual lead, trying to put more and more time into Sylvain Chavanel, Lars Boom and Philippe Gilbert, the cobbles guys whom the climbers left behind. With him though was Zdenek Stybar, Chava's OPQS teammate and a guy with a known burst on the line. Dumoulin had 16 seconds in hand on Styby, and was likely to lose any sprint for bonus seconds. So should he push to catch the three leaders or slack off a bit and take away Stybar's bonus chance? He pushed, Stybar got second on the stage (and a slight gap of maybe 1") but Dumoulin gained the overall with one stage to go.

Stage

1. David Lopez, Movistar
2. Zdenek Stybar, OPQS, at 0.02
3. Maceij Paterski, Cannondale, s.t.
4. Tom Dumouolin, Argos-Shimano, at 0.04
5. Jan Bakelants, s.t.

GC

1. Dumoulin
2. Stybar, at 0.08
3. Andriy Grivko, at 0.23