Phonak’s Oscar Pereiro held off his pursuers to take a solo victory in the sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland Sunday, a 135km ride around Silvaplana.

Bianchi’s Jan Ullrich came in just over a minute later followed by the promising Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg.

Casagrande leads

Photo: Graham Watson

Francesco Casagrande (Lampre) retained the overall lead of the race ahead of Tuesday's 33km time trial where second-placed Alexandre Vinokourov (Telekom) is aiming to regain the lead.

Kazakh rider Vinokourov may well keep his promise. His 37-second deficit will seem like almost nothing given his excellent season so far, having won the Paris-Nice for a second straight year and added the Amstel Gold Race to his list.

Sunday's stage was a low-key affair. Swiss rider Sven Montgomery made a couple of breakaway attempts on the climb to Lenzerheide, however he was soon brought to heel by Casagrande's domestique Wladimir Belli who led the peloton to chase him down.

Casagrande tried in turn to increase his lead however he failed to make much of a difference.

"I tried to attack but couldn't make increase the gap on the other favorites. The wind wasn't in my favor either," said the Italian who still believes he can hold off Vinokourov.

"It's me who's wearing the yellow jersey and I don't think Vinokourov is better than me in the time trial."

Vinokourov tried to attack on Sunday in a bid to gain some of the time he lost to his Italian rival on Saturday, however Casagrande was quick to the challenge.

Monday's seventh stage is a 231km ride from Savognin to Oberstaufen, followed by Tuesday's time trial and Wednesday's final, ninth stage - a 152km ride between Stafa and Aarau.

Full results posted below.