Evans moves up, Ignatiev wins Tirreno-Adriatico 6th stage

Russia's Mikhail Ignatiev won the 134km sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race between Montecosaro and Macerata.

The Katusha rider was followed across the line by Acqua & Sapone's Stefano Garzelli with Australian Cadel Evans in third.

Italy'sMichele Scarponi, riding for the Androni Giocattoli team, retained hislead in the overall standings but Garzelli is now only two secondsadrift in second ahead of Tuesday's seventh and final stage.

"It's not over. Two seconds are nothing," Garzelli said. "I'm not going to throw in the towel until San Benedetto."

Scarponi took his place in the peleton despite a crash on Sunday which led to him having x-rays on an injured wrist.

TheAndroni Giocattoli rider was passed fit and did well to finish sixth onthe stage after Ignatiev sped away from the pack in the tight streetsof Macerata near Italy's eastern Adriatic coast.

Ignatiev wasthe sole survivor of a 12-man breakaway at the 8km mark, hitting thelast climb in Macerata 10 seconds ahead of chasing group and holding onthrough to the finish.

"We completed three times climb inMacerata, before I tried to go out from the escape group. I attackedand after I did a good individual time trial till the finish. My legswere good and I thought, it would be nice to try something in thisstage," said Ignatyev.

"I tried some stages ago, but withoutsuccess. Now, I did it and for me stage in Macerata is somethingspecial. I wanted too much to win here and, finally, I did it."

Evans, who came in five seconds behind the Russian, felt he could have done better in the finale.

"Ileft my charge a little late and to get pipped on the line by Garzellifor second. Probably would have helped if I could have got on my dropsto get a bit more power on the road, but with the tight steep cornersand shuffling around to get into a good position, I didn't find thehalf second to do so," said Evans.

BMC team director John Lelangue was happy with cohesivness of the team and the level of support provided Evans.

“During the whole week, our team has been functioning well, they haveproven that they can manage a race around a leader," said Lelangue.

AnotherAustralian, Team HTC-Columbia's Michael Rogers, held on to his sixthposition on the general classification, 29 seconds in arrears.

The Tirreno-Adriatico finishes with a 164 km stage from Civitanova Marche to San Benedetto del Tronto.

Stage 6: 134km, Montecosaro - Macerata.

1Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Team Katusha 3:18:09, 2 Stefano Garzelli (Ita)Acqua & Sapone 0:00:05, 3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team, 4Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:00:07, 5 Benoit Vaugrenard (Fra)Francaise Des Jeux, 6 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli, 7Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia, 8 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita)Lampre-Farnese Vini 0:00:09, 9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Colnago - CSFInox 0:00:11, 10 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne.

General classification:

1Michele Scarponi (Ita) Androni Giocattoli 26:59:00, 2 Stefano Garzelli(Ita) Acqua & Sapone 0:00:02, 3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team0:00:12, 4 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana 0:00:22, 5 Robert Gesink (Ned)Rabobank 0:00:27, 6 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:29, 7Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Colnago - CSF Inox 0:00:33, 8 Vincenzo Nibali(Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:00:42, 9 Manuele Mori (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini0:01:04, 10 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini 0:01:07.