Slovenia’s Luka Pibernik of the Lampre team won the sixth stage of the Eneco Tour yesterday, beating Englishman Mark McNally and Belgium’s Bert Van Lerberghe in a sprint at Lanaken.
Australian BMC rider Rohan Dennis still leads in the overall standings, his advantage 16 seconds from Taylor Phinney of the United States and 24 seconds over Germany’s Tony Martin ahead of today’s final stage.
The seventh stage will be a 197.8 kilometre ride from Bornem to Grammont and includes challenging climbs that feature on the Tour of Flanders Classic.
“I have a strong team and I feel good. But it could rain and that would make the cobbles very slippery. I’ve not won the race yet,” said Dennis.
The peloton mis-timed its pursuit of the five-man break, allowed the group consisting of McNally, Pibernik, Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r), Chad Haga (Giant-Alpecin) and Bert Van Lerberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) to contest the finish in Lanaken, Belgium. Berden de Vries (Roompot) had also been in the original escape, but was dropped inside the final 20km.
Slovenian Pibernik opened up his sprint first with McNally rapidly accelerating to catch him, but the British rider simply ran out of road before the line and had to settle for second place, denying him his first WorldTour win. The 27-year-old from Lancashire was fifth on stage three, so he is steadily rising up the ranks.
Van Lerberghe completed the top three on the day with the peloton led home by Italian Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) at five seconds.
Overall race leader Dennis finished in the bunch to retain his top position in the general classification. The Australian lies 16 seconds ahead of American team-mate Taylor Phinney, with German Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) in third at 24 seconds.
STAGE 6 RESULTS
1. Luka Pibernik (Slovenia/Lampre) 4:28:45”
2. Mark McNally (Wanty) ST
3. Bert Van Lerberghe (Belgium/Topsport Vlaanderen)
4. Alexis Gougeard (France/AG2R)
5. Chad Haga (US/Giant)
6. Giacomo Nizzolo (Italy/Trek) +5”
7. Nacer Bouhanni (France/Cofidis)
8. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway/Dimension Data)
9. Arnaud Demare (France/FDJ)
10. Jonas Van Genechten (Belgium/IAM Cycling).
Slovenia’s Luka Pibernik (C) of Lampre-Merida crossed the finish line ahead of Belgian Bert Van Lerberghe (L) of team Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise and British Mark McNally (R) of Wanty-Groupe Gobert the sixth stage of the Eneco Tour cycling race, a 197.2 km race from Riemst to Lanaken in Belgium yesterday. (AFP)
