Paris-Nice: Shack Times Two

In a day that was all about teammates, it was the Radioshack duo of Jani Brajkovic and Andreas Kloden that made the difference at the end of Paris-Nice's queen stage. Brajkovic gave Kloden a fantastic leadout to allow him to hold off strong sprinter Sammy Sanchez for the stage win and the GC lead.

Brajkovic knew it too, as he threw his arms up in celebration before Kloden even did. That's what it means when you get multiple guys from the same team in a breakaway. Radioshack may have come out on top today, but HTC might have been the best overall team today.

Tony Martin finished at s.t as Kloden, Brajkovic, and Sanchez to put himself in prime position for tomorrow's ITT. But a lot of the credit should go to his teammates who worked their tails off to get him there.

After the morning breakaway that had 4 FDJ riders in it as well as Voeckler was finally caught (although they put up a good fight), it was Astana that took over at the beginning of the Mure.

Vino put a huge turn in up front that dropped any remaining non-climbers as well as the yellow jersey (De Gendt had a rough day and lost over 15 minutes). But that one huge turn was enough for him, and he started to go backwards and surrendered any chance he had at the title.

The intent of this was to set up Kreuzinger, who launched himself shortly afterwards. Tony Martin marked him immediately, and he decided to abandon the attack and head back to the peloton.

Not that Astana was done... Young Croatian climber Robert Kiserlovski attacked along with Matteo Carrara and they were allowed to escape from the peloton, which was still sizable at the time.

But it didn't stay that way for long. Not after Tejay Van Garderen was done with them.

The future American superstar put several absolutely unreal turns in up front and destroyed the back of the field. He also kept the two leaders in check, and Tony Martin sat perfectly on his wheel the entire time.

When he was finally worn out, Rein Taaramae and Xavier Tondo decided to give it a go. Tondo's presence alerted Martin, who immediately took off in pursuit. Martin's attack then triggered many alarm bells in the "peloton" (or whatever was left of it) and everyone scrambled to match him.

The Radioshack duo, Sanchez, and Frank Schleck were the only ones who were able to go with him. Schleck would immediately be dropped back to the peloton, and the group of 8 leaders went over the summit with the race to decide for themselves.

Kreuzinger and Schleck gave it a try, but some riders like Luis Leon Sanchez, the Sky duo of Rogers-Wiggins, and Jurgen Van Den Broeck completely missed the moves today. The 19 seconds they lost today wouldn't be that big of a deal, if it weren't for the presence of strong TT men like Kloden and of course Martin. LL Sanchez was especially frustrated with his performance at the finish line, and his acceleration (which was probably out of anger or frustration) actually gained him a second. He will have lots of work to do tomorrow.

Meanwhile up front it was Tony Martin who lead the leaders through the final bends leading to the finish. Brajkovic-Kloden came flying around the one side, Sanchez on the other, but Kloden got just too good of a leadout for Sanchez to overcome and Kloden inched him out at the line. Carrara brought it home 3rd.

Not mentioned today was Peter Sagan, who was dropped very early and lost over 25 minutes. I think everyone (myself certainly included) would have expected him to be a factor on the climb, but perhaps his crash back on Tuesday left him a bit sore.

Stage Results
1. Andreas Kloden
2. Samuel Sanchez
3. Matteo Carrara

General Classification
1. Andreas Kloden
2. Samuel Sanchez -4
3. Matteo Carrara -6
4. Tony Martin -10
5. Robert Kiserlovski
6. Janez Brajkovic
7. Xavier Tondo
8. Rein Taaramae
9. Luis Leon Sanchez -28
10. Roman Kreuzinger -29
11. Maxime Monfort
12. Jurgen Van Den Broeck
16. Michael Rogers
17. Bradley Wiggins
18. Ryder Hesjedal
21. Levi Leipheimer
22. Frank Schleck
26. Richie Porte -1:46
27. Tejay Van Garderen
50. Alexandre Vinkourov -5:21
63. Thomas De Gendt -15:09
107. Peter Sagan -25:57

Points
Heinrich Haussler- 79

KOM
Remi Pauriol- 39

Teams
Team Radioshack

Stage 6 ITT

Tony Martin doing what Tony Martin does best. Time Trial, and a long one at that. I'd expect Kloden to probably lose his lead, but still hold up pretty high. Wiggins, Van Den Broeck, and Leipheimer will also be big movers.

The race isn't over after tomorrow, but it will be tough to make time.

Prediction: Tony Martin of course