Tour de France: Stage 6 to Super Besse Shuffles Classification, New Yellow Jersey Again

The Tour's first climbing stage to the Super Besse ski station (pictured) provided a glimpse of what the battle for the overall title will look like when the bigger mountain stages show themselves in a few days time. Most of the GC contenders were able to stay in the front group, with exception to "il piccolo principe," Damiano Cunego. The former Giro winner was dropped by the lead group, and conceded 32 valuable seconds in the fight for the yellow jersey.

In winning the stage with a blistering attack in the final few hundered meters, Riccardo Ricco showed himself as an enormous talent of the future. Similar to Alberto Contedor, Ricco possesses an amazing turn of speed on extremely steep slopes, and his fearless attacking style usually pays off. He is fairly far down on the classification, but Ricco nevertheless remains one of the most intriguing riders in the Tour.

Of the other GC favorites, it was Kirchin, Valverde and Evans who looked the strongest. Rabobank's Denis Menchov and CSC's Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck put in good rides as well, showing that the battle for the overall has only just begun. Stijn Devolder of Quick Step lost 19 seconds on the day, but is still well within striking distance in 9th place at 1:21.

The surprises from the Super Besse stage must be Kirchin and Cunego. Kirchin is on incredible form and should no longer be discounted as a possible winner for this year. Cunego meanwhile took a noticable step back, despite his claims to the contrary. If the Italian can't survive on a stage like Super Besse, he'll probably have a much harder time in the huge mountains to come.

Looking ahead, after two more up and down stages the next two days, the Tour heads into the high mountains on Sunday for stage 9. Although not a mountain top finish, stage 9 will again soften the bunch, as the less-fit riders find themselves off the back once again. The field will face two huge climbs, the Col de Peyresourde and Aspin over the last 50 kilomteres, and it will be possible for a strong climber to possibly get away. The contenders will need to make sure that if they let a break go up the road, it doesn't contain a GC threat.