All the talk of big Tom Boonen not being able to hang with the pure sprinters was silenced Friday, as the burly Belgian took a commanding win at the finish of Stage 6 of the 2007 Tour de France, a mostly flat, 199.5km run from Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse.

The Quick Step-Innergetic star burst from the right side of a scrambled sprint, took the front, then drifted left and right, keeping second-place finisher Oscar Freire (Rabobank) at bay. German Eric Zabel (Milram) was third on a day when the bunch spent 5:20:59 in the saddle.

Boonen's bike-length win was his 10th of the year and fifth at the Tour, consolidating his place atop the green-jersey standings. Earlier in the day he jumped ahead of Zabel by earning second-place points at the first and second intermediate sprints.

Boonen now has 141 points, with Zabel second (130) and Freire third (114). Last year's green-jersey winner Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) is a distant sixth with 97 points.

"I don't read the papers anymore, so that takes away all the pressure," said Boonen when asked if he'd been feeling the heat lately. "There's no stress or motivation because I have to feel I have to win. It's better to ride your bike because you're having fun. That's the best way to win races."

There was no change at the top of the overall standings, with Swiss Fabian Cancellara (CSC) finishing safely in the bunch to maintain his 33-second lead over Andreas Klöden (Astana). Italian Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas) is third, at 0:35, with George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) the top-placed American, tied for fifth at 0:43. That almost surely will change Saturday, when the Tour enters the Alps, where four rated climbs, including the Cat. 1 Col de la Colombière, await.

"I know tomorrow I will lose the yellow jersey," conceded Cancellara, who's been in the GC lead since winning the prologue in London last Saturday, and received a surprise visit from his wife and daughter at the end of stage 6.

"It's been a great week, the best of my career. Tomorrow I will be a worker. I will give everything for Carlos [Sastre] and Frank [Schleck]. I am not even thinking about the time trials. It's all for them now. The team supported me all week to defend the jersey. I am so grateful."

The Tour's morning newsflash came out of the Astana camp. After the ugliness of Thursday's stage when both Alexander Vinokourov and Klöden crashed and had to be taken to the hospital, both were at the start line Friday.

Vino' is somewhat the worse for wear

Photo: Graham Watson

"Klöden is in pain and will find it hard to get up on the pedals on the climbs," Astana team manager Marc Biver said before stage 6. "He seems demoralized. The most visible injuries aren't always the worst ones. We'll see how he goes."

Klöden, runner-up in the 2004 Tour and third last year, was diagnosed with a hairline fracture of his coccyx after crashing 107km into the 182.5km fifth stage and landing in a grassy ditch. Tour doctor Gerard Porte examined Klöden.

"From a medical point of view, there's no reason why he can't continue," the doctor said. "We'll have to see what kind of pains he has. The pain will determine if he can continue or not."

Pre-race GC favorite Vinokourov went down 26km from the finish and received stitches to his right knee and elbow. Both riders spent most of Friday at the back of the field, thankful for some rest before the real climbing begins.

Friday's transitional stage rolled away from Semur-en-Auxois under a cloudless blue sky, and Brit Bradley Wiggins opted for some solo time. The Cofidis rider broke free from the bunch at the 2km mark, and with no one else ready to work, his advantage quickly expanded.

Wiggins has solid cycling lineage in his blood. His father, Gary, was a pro cyclist, whose son was born in the two-wheeled hotbed of Ghent, Belgium, before the family moved back to London.

The younger Wiggins earned his early cycling fame on the track, taking as member of Great Britain’s bronze-medal pursuit team at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and then adding gold in the individual pursuit, silver in the team and bronze in the Madison at Athens four years later.

At 44km Wiggins was up 11:30, a testament to the peloton's pedestrian pace on the last day before the Alps. Wiggins's margin would climb all the way to 17:45, making him GC leader on the road by a wide margin. He came into the day 105th, 5:40 behind Cancellara.

T-Mobile on the hunt

Photo: Graham Watson

"I thought someone would come across in a counterattack,” said Wiggins. “But no one came across, and then I found myself with one minute, two minutes, and I thought, 'Well, this is the Tour, you can't sit up in situations like that.' I just settled in for a long day."

Wiggins's long escape happened to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the death of Tom Simpson, a fellow Brit who died on the slopes of Mount Ventoux on this same day at the 1967 Tour de France.

With 114km to go Wiggins's advantage was down to 14 minutes, with CSC setting moderate tempo at the front of a relaxed field. At the stage's halfway mark it was 8:17.

The lull of the stage was momentarily broken at the intermediate sprint at 127km. Boonen shot out of the bunch with then-points leader Zabel tucked behind. The German couldn't come around the Quick Step captain, meaning Boonen took over the green-jersey lead.

Boonen and Zabel had been tied on points after the opening intermediate sprint at 51.5km, when Zabel was shut out and Boonen grabbed four points for second behind Wiggins. But Zabel maintained the lead based on higher standing on GC. Neither rider contested the final intermediate sprint, leaving the end game for the finish line.

The race lost another rider on Friday. Geoffroy Lequatre (Cofidis) who crashed hard on stage 5 and limped home more than 44 minutes behind the peloton on Thursday. That put him well beyond the time cut-off, but the race jury allowed him to continue, citing his "fighting spirit." Unfortunately for Lequatre, he couldn't make the start of stage 6.

At the second of the day's two climbs, the Cat. 4 Col de Brancion with 138km covered, Wiggins's advantage was tumbling, and by the 43km-to-go mark it was down to 3:34.

The peloton

Photo: Graham Watson

The field backed off a bit on the approach to this finish, content to let Wiggins dangle, thus avoiding the annoying counterattacks that disrupt the sprinters' trains.

There had been some speculation in the pressroom that the field might allow Wiggins to ride to victory in honor of Simpson, after Scot David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir) expressed disappointment that Tour officials hadn't done anything to commemorate the anniversary. That didn't happen, but the bunch did let Wiggins go it alone as long as possible. The catch finally came with 7km to go, meaning the Brit spent 190km off the front alone.

From there the action resembled a massive match sprint, as the sprinters played a drawn-out game of chicken, seeing who would jump first. Finally with 3.4km to go the speed picked up, with Quick Step taking control.

Boonen rewarded their work, blasting across the line to take a convincing stage win.

Don't look back, Bradley old boy — something may be gaining on you

Photo: AFP

"It was the same as the days before, but now I found some room to start," explained Boonen of the final kilometer. "Like every day, the guy who found the room to do his sprint won. Freire was strong, but everything went fine. I had some bad luck with my derailleur when someone crashed into it. But in the last 250 meters I had an opening on the right, I think someone braked completely, I had to start again. From that moment on it was just trying to go as fast as possible."

Next up at the Tour de France is the first big mountain affair, the 197.5km Stage 7 ride from Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand Bornand. This will be the first chance to see who will truly challenge for the final yellow jersey.

The stage finale includes the long grind up the northern side of the Cat. 1 Col de la Colombière, which has an average grade of almost 7 percent for 16km.

Before that it's a mix of winding roads through the edge of the Jura, and flat roads in the limestone gorges. There are also two Cat. 3 and one Cat. 4 climbs. Once over the top of the Colombière, there's a fast 10km descent into Le Grand Bornand, with a flat 4km loop to the finish.

The one and only previous Tour stage to finish in Le Grand Bornand came in 2004 when Lance Armstrong took out Klöden in the final meters, then made his infamous "no gifts" comment.

It's possible that an early break could stay clear over the Colombière, but it's more likely that the top teams will try to keep things together before their leaders show their stuff on the testing climb.

Stage 6
1. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 199.5km in 5:20:59
2. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, same time
3. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, s.t.
4. Sébastien Chavanel (F), Française des Jeux, s.t.
5. Thor Hushovd (N), Crédit Agricole
6. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre-Fondital, s.t.
7. Robert Förster (G), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
8. Robert Hunter (RSA), Barloworld, s.t.
9. Romain Feillu (F), Agritubel, s.t.
10. Murilo Fisher (Brz), Liquigas, s.t.

Overall
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, 5:49:55
2. Andréas Klöden (G), Astana, at 0:33
3. Filippo Pozzato (I), Liquigas, at 0:35
4. David Millar (GB), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 0:41
5. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, at 0:43
6. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, s.t.
7. Vladimir Gusev (Rus), Discovery Channel, at 0:45
8. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse D’epargne, at 0:46
9. Erik Zabel (G), Team Milram, at 0:48
10. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 0:49

Complete results

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