Stage six of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California was won by Sylvain Georges (AG2R La Mondiale), a young canadian rider who jumped off the front less than 10km off the front and stayed there for the next 175, riding to a solo win with an incredible effort.
Joined in the break by a half dozen other riders at first, Georges worked with his fellow escapees as current King of the Mountains leader Sebastian Salas and his teammate Andrew Bajadali (Optum Pro Cycling) worked in tandem to keep David Boily (Spidertech-C10) from gaining any points on Salas. The break kept up a tremendous pace, and one by one the riders cracked and fell back into the main peloton. All except Georges, that is, who came into the final 20km with a gap of over three minutes on the main field. The peloton put the hammer down and drove hard to catch him, but he had worked too hard for that. He crossed the line all by himself, a full 28 seconds ahead of the bunch.
The GC standings remain largely unchanged after stage six, leaving Saturday's climb of Mt. Baldy to decide the race. Santa Rosa's Team BMC has Tejay Van Garderen sitting in second, 34 seconds behind leader Dave Zabriskie. Zabriskie isn't a great climber, and Van Garderen and the other GC heavyweights will likely fight it out among themselves. Saturday's stage is for the whole thing, though, with Sunday's drive in LA very unlikely to have any effect on the standings. Anyone rider with intentions on winning the 2012 Amgen Tour of California is going to have to be first up that unforgiving climb.
The GC Standings following stage six:
1) David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Barracuda 25:37:05
2) Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:34
3) Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:39
4) Peter Velits (Svk) Omega Pharma-Quickstep 0:00:45
5) Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin - Barracuda 0:00:48
6) Luke Durbridge (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team 0:01:01
7) Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin - Barracuda 0:01:07
8) Rory Sutherland (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team 0:01:10
9) Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team 0:01:26
10) Lawson Craddock (USA) Bontrager Livestrong Team
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