The sixth stage of the Vuelta a Espana from Guijuelo to Caceres 175 km , had 174.95 km for a single leader, the ITT world champion Tony Martin has in fact controlled the race until about 50 meters from the finish line.

The German has made a remarkable performance. A slight slope on the final straight did put several fast runners in crisis, then cutting them out from early position for the final sprint.

The first pure sprinter to be reached the finish line is also the first athlete of Lampre Merida, Richeze has had to bow his head only to a nice progression of Mørkøv, who isn’t very fast, but with today’s arrival it was possible for him to take the win.

”Today I was really good, even better than yesterday. Before a difficult series of roundabouts and curves that kept the group in a single file, the situation had emerged with Tony Martin that really surprised everyone with his final strength. This had led the group with Cancellara in the lead, to play a long sprint on a sloping straight line. So the lash of Cancellara which brought us close to Martin really exhausted me and I must admit that when I came to the sprint, the gas already was open. The order of arrival is clear, we find riders with characteristics different from me or Farrar’s in the first places and that’s fully understandable. I’m angry because the victory slipped away from me, but also happy to realize that I’m in the group of sprinters with the best form in the Vuelta and tomorrow I have to try again for sure, because I feel that victory is within my reach.”

Lampre’s Director Sportif Matxin Fernandez isn’t delighted about today’s result.

”We can’t be satisfied today, for the simple reason that we are the team with one of the best sprinters here at the Vuelta, but we can’t prove it to the end. Anger aside I really have to congratulate our boys because today nothing was wrong, escorting Richeze in perfect position until the sprint. Everybody knows its current value in the sprints and this is a source of pride to try again even more convinced in tomorrow’s stage.”