Lorenzo Bernucci grabbed his first victory as a pro today by taking stage six of the 92nd Tour de France.
Christophe Mengin had attacked and been in the lead, although not certain of a victory as the peloton was closing in quickly. Apparently, it didn't seem too quickly for Alexandre Vinokourov, so he attacked, and Lorenzo Bernucci followed. As the two caught up to Mengin at 200m to go, Mengin's front wheel slipped out from under him because of the wet roads and sidewalk paint, causing Vino' to slow to avoid going down also. Bernucci took advantage of Vino's lack of momentum to take the win. Vinokourov, a potential problem for Lance, was awarded a 12-second bonus as well as being seven seconds ahead of the pack, and therefore getting 19 seconds back from Armstrong.
"We knew the finale in Nancy would be dangerous," said Alexandre Vinokourov, "so I was up front. When the sprinters teams hesitated in the last kilometres, I decided to attack. It's too bad that I had to slow down at the end, but I'm happy how things turned out as I moved up on GC."
"It's always dangerous when it's raining like that," said Lance Armstrong, who was delayed by a crash. "We always have a good look at the stages when they have a difficult finale. But Johan (Bruyneel) was telling us through the radio earpieces about the dangerous sections in the end, telling us to turn left or right. It was a dangerous stage."
That was a slippery turn. Ouch!
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