Ricco wins stage as Kirchen takes yellow

(CNN) -- Italian climber Riccardo Ricco of Saunier Duval won the 195.5km sixth stage of the Tour de France in the Massif Central on Thursday, with Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg taking the race leader's yellow jersey.

Pre-race favorites Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans finished on Ricco's wheel as the Italian took the hilly stage to Super-Besse in four hours, 57 minutes and 52 seconds.

"Winning a stage so early is excellent for our confidence," said Ricco, adding the success was bigger than his stage victory in the Giro d'Italia.

"Both competitions are great, but the Tour is the most difficult competition in the world.

"I've been thinking about this stage since the start of the Tour," added Ricco, who finished runner-up to Spaniard Alberto Contador at the Giro in June.

"I've come here primarily to win a stage, so it's nice to achieve that first aim -- and it's good to beat a big champion like Valverde in the process."

Kirchen holds a six-second overall lead from Australian Evans after previous yellow jersey wearer Stefan Schumacher came off his bike in the final stages to lose almost 30 seconds.

Gerolsteiner rider Schumacher now lies 16 seconds adrift in third position after he clipped Kirchen's wheel on the steep run to the line.

"It was just one of those things," sighed the German, who was unable to benefit from the rule normally allowing a rider who falls in the final 3km to be given the same time of the group he was with, because a summit finish is an exception.

"But it's still terrible to lose the yellow jersey in such a way, especially after the team worked so hard to keep it today," added Schumacher.

Kirchen is the first Luxembourg rider since Charly Gaul in 1958 to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour. Gaul went on to win that race.

"I've been a bit surprised by my condition," said Kirchen. "Now I want to take the race day by day. I want to see what happens in the Pyrenees and if it goes well in the Pyrenees we'll see in the Alps, and in Paris."

It was a second major boost for U.S.-based Team Columbia, after Kirchen's team-mate Mark Cavendish won Wednesday's stage for the team.

The team competed as T-Mobile last year and had to deal with the loss of its sponsor and the doping case of Patrik Sinkewitz, which was announced during the race.

They only got a new sponsor shortly before this year's race. "Everybody is working hard. There are a lot of new riders. I think everyone on the team is 100 per cent committed and now we want to see what we can achieve," added Kirchen.

As on the previous day, a group of three Frenchmen broke away shortly after the start of the stage. At one point, Sylvain Chavanel, Benoit Vaugrenard and Freddy Bichot had a lead of five minutes over the peloton.

Despite the hilly profile of the course, the pace of the chasing peloton finally closed the deficit to just two minutes with 43km to race.

Chavanel took the two early small climbs, plus the first major climb of the Tour, over the Croix-Morand Pass. He was caught 20km from the finish, before the final climb, as were the other two escapees, but succeeded in taking the polka-dot climber's jersey.

A host of riders then attempted to attack in the final 20km but were unable to break away from the peloton and all the race favorites were still together up to the final kilometer, where Ricco won the uphill sprint to the finish line.

Ricco's stage win was a relief to his Saunier Duval team, who had lost a second member of their squad at the start of the sixth stage, when Aurelien Passeron was forced to retire following his crash en route to Chateauroux on Wednesday.

The Spanish team had already lost Angel Gomez to injury.