Hushovd prevails in sprint finish

Norwegian Thor Hushovd took the honours on the sixth stage of the Vuelta a Espana after pipping a whole host of riders in a massed sprint finish in Murcia.

With around 65 riders all within touching distance of each other heading down the final straight, the stage victory was up for grabs right until the end, but it was Cervelo Test Team's Hushovd who emerged at the head of the sprinters to claim the spoils.

Ireland's Nicolas Roche finished in tenth and remains 11th in the overall standings.

Hushovd, who has claimed stage wins in the Tour de France, Vuelta and Giro d'Italia, finished the 151-kilometre race from Caravaca de la Cruz to Murcia in a time of three hours 36 minutes and 20 seconds.

Second place went to Italian Daniele Bennati of Liquigas, with Slovenian Grega Bole of Lampre third.

Allan Davis of Astana and Katusha's Filippo Pozzato made up the top five.

Sixth place was claimed by Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), who retains the leader's red jersey and his 10-second advantage over Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at the top of the overall standings.

For the majority of the sixth stage a group of three riders - Freddy Bichot, Juan Javier Estrada Ruiz and Markus Eichler - held the lead having broken away early on and at one point boasted an advantage of almost 10 minutes.

However, as is often the case, the breakaway group were gradually hauled back in by the peloton and the leaders were eventually swallowed up by the chasing pack with around 20km to go to the finishing line, leading to the bunch sprint that saw Hushovd emerge triumphant.

Hushovd earlier this week agreed terms for 2011 with Garmin-Cervelo, a squad to be formed by the amalgamation of the Team Garmin-Transitions and Cervelo Test Teams following the latter's demise at the end of this campaign.

He celebrated his new contract with victory, the category two climb of the Alto de la Cresta del Gallo allowing Hushovd to distance himself from the race's other leading sprinters, including Team Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar, who will be his team-mate in 2011, and Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia).

Friday's seventh stage is the 187.1km ride from Murcia to Orihuela.