Lawson Craddock has bounced back from cramps on stage 5 to take an impressive third place on the uphill finish to stage 6.
The 174km stage is the penultimate of the race ahead of tomorrow’s final time trial and featured no less than eight classified climbs before a tough uphill finish in the final three kilometres.
The race struggled to get into a rhythm with multiple attacks constantly trying to break the front of the race and this meant that breakaways struggled to establish themselves. With 50km to race one rider sat one minute ahead of the thinning bunch but this wasn’t to be either as the front of the race came back together with a select group containing Craddock.
On the penultimate climb of the stage, a tough 22% ascent which split the front group, Craddock attacked and helped to pull a select group clear to battle out the finish. Sergio Henao (Sky) attacked out of this group in the closing kilometres to take the stage win while behind Craddock sprinted to a close third place, just eight seconds down on the stage winner.
Marcel Kittel safely finished the stage within the time limit meaning that he successfully defends the white jersey of points leader ahead of tomorrow’s final stage.
After the stage Craddock said: “It was a really nice day for us. I had great support from the team to get me to each climb in a good position. From the last lap on it was very hard on every climb and the group just kept getting smaller and smaller. I was still feeling really good so I decided to try and give it a go on the very steep climb, but was brought back over the top. From then on I just recovered for the final climb to the finish.
“I really had to fight hard to stay with the front guys, and still had enough left in the tank to sprint for the podium. I’m really happy with how today went as it was a direct result of how hard I have worked this year.”
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