Paris-Nice Stage 6: Luis Leon Sanchez beats Jens Voigt to stage win, Wiggins keeps lead

Luis Leon Sanchez of Rabobank and RadioShack-Nissan's Jens Voigt fought out a two-man battle to win Stage 6 of Paris-Nice in Sisteron this afternoon, the Spaniard just having enough left in the tank to pass the hugely popular German on the line. Some 14 seconds behind, Garmin-Barracuda's Heinrich Haussler took the sprint for third, meaning that none of the leading contenders managed to pick up bonus seconds to close the gap on race leader Bradley WIggins.

As Sanchez and Voigt entered the final five kilometres, the gap back to the main bunch was down to just one minute. Omega Pharma-Quick Step were driving the pace at the front, working for third-placed Levi Leipheimer who was looking to pick up the four second time bonus for finishing third on the stage to put him on the same time as yesterday's stage winner, Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil-DCM.

The gap on the leading pair tumbled as the stage headed towards its conclusion, but it was clear they would be the riders contesting the finish as they headed under the flamme rouge and into the final kilometre. 

Voigt, sixth overall in this race during each of the past two seasons and Sanchez, the overall winner of Paris-Nice in 2009 and second behind Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Tony Martin last year, had been part of a 26-man breakaway group that had got away early on in today's 178.5 kilometre stage from Suze-la-Rousse which included race leader Wiggins and second-placed Westra.

Riders with hopes of the overall win including Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, fourth overall, found themselves briefly in a third group on the road, but the main bunch came back together, leaving seven riders out in front.

With a little over 10 kilometres to go, Sanchez and Voigt dropped the one rider who had managed to stay with them, AG2R's Mickael Cherel, setting up a duel for the stage win between two of the peloton's stronger men.

Paris-Nice Stage 6 result  

1  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon    RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM   4h 07' 58"
2  VOIGT Jens           RADIOSHACK-NISSAN       Same time
3  HAUSSLER Heinrich    GARMIN - BARRACUDA       + 00' 14"
4  VIVIANI Elia         LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE   All at same time
5  BOLE Grega           LAMPRE - ISD
6  KRISTOFF Alexander   KATUSHA TEAM
7  DUMOULIN Samuel      COFIDIS
8  FEILLU Romain        VACANSOLEIL-DCM
9  DE KORT Koen         PROJECT 1T4I
10 GUARNIERI Jacopo     ASTANA PRO TEAM
11 SIMON Julien         SAUR-SOJASUN
12 IZAGUIRRE Gorka      EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
13 HUSHOVD Thor         BMC RACING TEAM
14 RAVARD Anthony       AG2R LA MONDIALE
15 CHAVANEL Sébastien   TEAM EUROPCAR
16 JORGENSEN Jonas Aaen TEAM SAXO BANK
17 ROJAS Jose Joaquin   MOVISTAR TEAM
18 SULZBERGER Wesley    GREENEDGE CYCLING TEAM
19 JEANNESSON Arnold    FDJ-BIGMAT
20 NERZ Dominik         LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE

Paris-Nice Overall Standings after Stage 6  

1  WIGGINS Bradley      SKY PROCYCLING        22h 31' 52"
2  WESTRA Lieuwe        VACANSOLEIL-DCM         + 00' 06"
3  LEIPHEIMER Levi      OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP + 00' 10"
4  VALVERDE Alejandro   MOVISTAR TEAM           + 00' 18"
5  SPILAK Simon         KATUSHA TEAM            + 00' 37"
6  VAN GARDEREN Tejay   BMC RACING TEAM         + 00' 39"
7  MONFORT Maxime       RADIOSHACK-NISSAN       + 00' 46"
8  JEANNESSON Arnold    FDJ-BIGMAT              + 01' 06"
9  CHAVANEL Sylvain     OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP + 01' 16"
10 KISERLOVSKI Robert   ASTANA PRO TEAM         + 01' 21"

Paris-Nice Points Classification after Stage 6  

1  VALVERDE Alejandro   MOVISTAR TEAM             74 pts
2  WIGGINS Bradley      SKY PROCYCLING            67 pts
3  WESTRA Lieuwe        VACANSOLEIL-DC            63 pts
4  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon    RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM     52 pts
5  LEIPHEIMER Levi      OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STE    50 pts

Paris-Nice Mountains Classification after Stage 6  

1  VEUCHELEN Frederik   VACANSOLEIL-DCM           55 pts
2  MATE Luis Angel      COFIDIS                   20 pts
3  LE LAY David         SAUR-SOJASUN              20 pts
4  ARASHIRO Yukiya      TEAM EUROPCAR             19 pts
5  DE CLERCQ Bart       LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM        15 pts

Paris-Nice Best Young Rider Classification after Stage 6  

1  VAN GARDEREN Tejay   BMC RACING TEAM       22h 32' 31"
2  URAN Rigoberto       SKY PROCYCLING          + 02' 55"
3  MALACARNE Davide     TEAM EUROPCAR           + 03' 30"
4  NERZ Dominik         LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE     + 05' 41"
5  SICARD Romain        EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI     + 07' 07"