Blaye-les-Mines
21 km
Thursday 11 September
Sixth stage. Blaye-les-Mines – Blaye-les-Mines. 21 kilometres 92 riders at the start. Taaramae wins ahead of Coppel and Costa. Overall, the Estonian moves up to fifth position, under four minutes adrift of Bakelants.
One was expecting the big guns, the leaders of the overall. They proved to be at heigth of expectations. Taaramae, Coppel, Bakelants, Koren and co gave all they had on the 21 kilometres of the tricky and hilly course around the town of Blaye-les-Mines with the double goal of winning a stage and positionning oneself for final overall victory in three days at Mirepoix.
At that game, favourite Taaramae expected to shine on this Tour de l’Avenir made the best of his position. He won the stage in a time of 29’13’’. Jérôme Coppel who had big ambitions for this one in order to move up the GC, finished second, 4" adrift, while Portugal’s Costa had to settle for third spot in 29’24’’.
Bakelants, leader before the start, powered to ninth position and keeps the yellow jersey. Stetina remains second under the threat of Coppel. Taaramae is now within shooting distance, fifth, 3’48’’ away from the leader.
Rein Taaramae (EST) stage winner: "I really wanted to win today to move up the overall as much as possible because the Belgian (Bakelants) is really strong. But one thing is for sure, I will fight for overall victory. I have a 3’48 deficit. I will therefore have to be very focused all the way to the finish not to lose time before the mountains. And I’ll have to be very strong in the stage going to Guzet".
"I really wanted to win today to move up the overall as much as possible because the Belgian (Bakelants) is really strong. But one thing is for sure, I will fight for overall victory. I have a 3’48 deficit. I will therefore have to be very focused all the way to the finish not to lose time before the mountains. And I’ll have to be very strong in the stage going to Guzet".