Serge Pauwels gave it his all to try and stay away during Monday's 181km stage 6 of Tirreno-Adriatico in Offida, which included a final 2.5km climb, with ramps of 10%. He and seven other break mates attacked early on and had a maximum gap of slightly less than five minutes.
But in the later kilometers, as the peloton cut into the gap, the break was reduced to just four riders and was eventually caught. The peloton wanted to compete for crucial bonus seconds at the finish line of the stage.
Joaquin Rodriguez (KAT) won the stage solo, attacking just before the 1km point. Vincenzo Nibali (LIQ) finished 2nd, and Danilo Di Luca (ACQ) was third.
"Today was one of the hardest days in Tirreno," Pauwels said. "I finally made it into the break, it was a really nasty start — 45 minutes full gas. i think a lot of riders were already dropped, and then we finally could force the breakaway. I think we had five minutes. It was never really enough time to make it to the finish, although we really tried hard."
Pauwels led the break down a descent with about 10km to go, bringing the gap back from 30" to almost a minute. Unfortunately, as the break hit the tough, long climb, the peloton slowly reeled them in and caught Pauwels with one remaining breakaway member with 5.4km remaining.
"I'm happy with my performance," Pauwels said. "It's only my second race of the year after Tour Down Under. I'm especially happy after last year where I missed half of the season due to my injury to my elbow. But I'm happy to perform well, also because the team gave me a lot of confidence. It's nice for me to be here in Tirreno and support the team, especially when they asked to get into the break today. It's nice when it works well."
Peter Velits, the GC contender for Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team, did what he could to stay in the front and possibly go for a stage win or at least preserve his time difference in the GC. However, a small front split occurred with 2.9km, and Velits could not stick with the move. The move consisted of all the top riders of the race, including the top 3 GC contenders.
Velits finished in 22nd, 16" back from the winner. He is now 15th overall, 2'19" back in the GC.
