ALENCON (France), July 12: Erik Zabel took revenge on his fellow sprinters when he won the 199.5-kilometre sixth stage of the Tour de France Friday after three previous podium finishes in the race.

The German, six times winner of the Tour’s points classification, had twice finished second — in Luxembourg behind Rubens Bertogliati and in Reims behind Robbie McEwen — and once third, in Saarbruecken behind Oscar Freire.

This time the four-times Milan-San Remo winner was too strong, launching his sprint from afar to see off the challenge of Freire, who took second place, and McEwen in third.

“For sure I started the Tour with a lot of pressure because of the absence in the team of Jan Ullrich,” said Zabel, who has now won 12 Tour de France stages in his career.

“There was a lot of expectation back home,” added the German, who held the race leader’s yellow jersey for one day.

But this time, unlike in previous sprint finishes in this Tour, Zabel could count on two team mates, Danilo Hondo and Gian-Matteo Fagnini, to lead him towards the line in the best position.

Thanks to the victory, Zabel will again be a favourite to take the points classification green jersey back to Paris for the seventh time.

The Telekom team leader has had a disappointing season, failing to win the Milan-San Remo classic for the fifth time.

The stage win also came at the right time for his team, who were badly hurt by the news just before the Tour started that 1997 winner Jan Ullrich had failed a dope test for amphetamines.

Spaniard Igor Gonzalez Galdeano, who took the yellow jersey from Zabel on Wednesday, retained the overall lead with a four- second advantage over his team mate Joseba Beloki.

Three times champion Lance Armstrong stayed third, a further three seconds adrift.

The stage, hit by violent storms, was again marred by serious crashes.

In the first, 20 kms after the start from the spa town of Forges-les-Eaux, Briton David Millar suffered a knee injury.

The second, 30 kms from the finish in Alencon, was far more serious, with Kazakh Alex Shefer taken to hospital.

Six riders — breakaway specialist Jacky Durand, fellow-Frenchman Emmanuel Magnien, German Stefan Wesemann, Italian Massimo Apollonio, Spaniard Constantino Zaballa and Belgian Paul van Hyfte — parted company with the main group after 115 kms.—Reuters