Petacchi wins sprint for stage six
 |  Petacchi prevented Oscar Freire from recording a fourth stage victory |
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CIVITANOVA MARCHE, Italy -- Italy's Alessandro Petacchi showed he is still the fastest sprinter in cycling by winning the 160km sixth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico.
World champion Oscar Freire won three consecutive hilly stages earlier in the seven-day race before Petacchi responded along the Adriatic coast.
The Fassa Bortolo beat Freire, Australia's Robbie McEwen and a host of leading sprinters in a mass finish.
Freire retains the leader's yellow jersey, but thanks to the 10-second bonus awarded to stage winners, Petacchi reduced the gap on Freire to 19 seconds with one stage left.
"Freire has shown he is strongest at the end of the hilly stages but this finish was more suited to me and I really wanted to win today," Petacchi said.
"There was a lot of dangerous riding in the final kilometres with riders trying to push me around but my Fassa Bortolo team mates were incredible yet again.
"They showed they're the strongest and gave me a perfect lead out."
Freire is still favourite to win the seven-day race when it ends on Tuesday.
If Freire does win he will take the lead in cycling's new ProTour classification from American Bobby Julich who scored 50 points by winning Paris-Nice.
Freire has scored three points for his stage victories at Tirreno-Adriatico and so the 50 points awarded to the overall winner at Tirreno would put him ahead of Julich.
"I haven't won the race until tomorrow's last stage but if we finish all together in another sprint, it'll make it easier," Freire said.
"My Rabobank team controlled the stage very well today. I was in a good position in the sprint and so I went early, but it was a bit too early and Petacchi beat me."
Tuesday's seventh and final stage over 164 kms starts and finishes in San Benedetto del Tronto. The final 70 kms are on a sea-front circuit and the stage is expected to end with another mass sprint.
