Ullrich increases Swiss Tour lead
LINTHAL, Switzerland -- Phonak's Swiss rider Niki Aebersold won the 185.4 km sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland as Jan Ullrich extended his overall lead.
German Ullrich, using the event to prepare for the Tour de France, came home in fourth place on the stage in the main chase pack, three minutes behind runaway stage winner Aebersold.
Oscar Camenzind, also of Phonak and in second place overnight two seconds down on Ullrich, finished 12th, a further one minute and 13 seconds adrift, and dropped to seventh overall.
Saunier Duval's Fabian Jeker is now in second place, with the same six-second deficit to T-Mobile's Ullrich that he started the day with.
Austrian Georg Totschnig lies third, 25 seconds behind the leader.
Aebersold dominated the first real test of the event as he mastered two mountain passes to take the honours ahead of Rabobank's Dutchman Thorwold Veneberg and Vini Caldirola's Roger Beuchat of Switzerland.
He opted to go alone for the second pass and completed the stage two minutes and 51 seconds ahead of Veneberg as the tough mountain stage had a major effect on the leaderboard.
Despite his win, Aebersold is in 34th place overall and is more than 20 minutes behind Ullrich.
Friday's 133.7 km seventh stage to the ski resort of Malbun, in Liechtenstein, provides the last real threat to Ullrich's lead with a steep mountain climb to the finish line.
The nine-stage race ends on Sunday with a time trial around Lugano.
