1. Fabio Baldato (Ita, MG) 5.40.46 (36.976 km/h) 2. Dimitri Konyshev (Rus, AKI) 3. Nicola Minali (Ita, GEWISS) 4. Jaan Kirsipuu ((Est, PETIT CASINO) 5. Angel Edo (Esp, KELME) 6. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita, SCRIGNO) 7. Marcel Wuest (Ger, MX ONDA) 8. Giovanni Lombardi (Ita, POLTI) 9. Jeroen Blijlevens (Ned) 10. Pascal Chanteur (Fra) 11. Tom Steels (Bel) 12. Giuseppe Citterio (Ita) 13. Paolo Ferreira (Por) 14. Asier Guenetxea (Spa) 15. Stefano Faustini (Ita) 16. Biagio Conte (Ita) 17. Oscar Aranguren (Spa) 18. Jurgen Werner (Ger) 19. Tom Cordes (Ned) 20. Maximilian Sciandri (Gbr) . . Selected 26. Laurent Jalabert (Fra) same time .. 30. Bobby Julich (USA) .. 32. Laurent Dufaux (Switz, Festina) .. 42. William Chann McRae (USA) 43. Bo Hamburger (Den) .. 49. Melchor Mauri (Spa) .. 66. Kevin Livingston (USA) 67. Michel Lafis (Sue) 68. Stephen Hodge (Aus) .. 74. Peter Meinert (Den) .. 79. Alex Zulle (Swi) .. 87. Claus Moller (Den) .. 89. Tony Rominger (Swi) .. 102. Lars Johnsen (Nor) .. 105. Miguel Indurain (Spa) .. 110. Neil Stephens (Aus) .. 169. Michael Andersson (Swe) at 10.03
1. Fabio Baldato (Ita, MG) 26.24.17 2. Laurent Jalabert (Fra, ONCE) + 0.11 3. Giovanni Lombardi (Ita, POLTI) + 0.22 4. Juergen Werner (Ger, TELEKOM) + 0.32 5. Luca Pavanello (Ita, AKI) + 0.38 6. Stefano Faustini (Ita, AKI) + 0.39 7. Steffen Wesemann (Ger, TELEKOM) 8. Roberto Pistore (Ita, MG) 9. Serguei Ouchakov (UKR, POLTI) all s.t. 10. Luca Colombo (Ita) 0.45 11. Melchor Mauri (Spa) 12. Massimo Apollonio (Ita) 13. Valerio Tebaldi (Ita) 14. Alex Zulle (Swi) all same time 15. Gianluca Gorini (Ita) 0.56 16. Serguei Smetanine (Rus) 1.04 17. Jeroen Blijlevens (Ned) same time 18. Laurent Dufaux (Swi) 1:06. 19. Bobby Julich (USA) 1:09. 20. Juan Arenas (Spa) same time .. Selected Overall 27. Miguel Indurain (Spa) at 1.21 .. 29. Bo Hamburger (Den) 1:22 .. 34. Neil Stephens (Aus) .. 37. Kevin Livingston (USA) all same time .. 58. Maximilian Sciandri (Gbr) 8:02 .. 74. Michel Lafis (Swe) 8:38 .. 81. William Chann McRae (USA) 8:45 82. Stephen Hodge (Aus) .. 86. Tony Rominger (Swi) all same time .. 120. Michael Andersson (Swe) 11:30 .. 147. Claus Moller (Den) 20:15 .. 163. Lars Johnsen (Nor) 28:27
The Italian started the day three seconds behind previous race leader Laurent Jalabert, but whittled the gap down to just one second after picking up bonus time in special sprint stages.
Russian rider Dimitry Konyshev made an early break for home at the end of the stage, only to see Baldato steal victory -- and a 12-second bonus -- at the finish line.
``This is the reward for the team's hard work. Everything that comes next will be a plus,'' said Baldato, who now has an 11-second lead over Jalabert and stands 22 seconds ahead of Giovanni Lombardi in provisional overall standings.
The riders escaped the rain that caused problems earlier in the week, but were buffeted by wind all the way along the 210 km coast road from Almeria to Malaga.
Despite the conditions Italy's Marco di Renzo broke clear towards the 35-kilometre mark, and was joined shortly afterwards by Francisco Cabello, who was riding through his home province of Granada for much of the day.
The pair surged to an 18-minute lead before Jalabert's ONCE team closed the gap. Until the final 25 kms it looked as if di Renzo and Cabello might even hang on, but Cabello was caught 12 kilometres out and di Renzo at the 10-kilometre mark as the Mapei team pushed for their second successive stage victory.
The Vuelta continues on Friday with the 150km seaside stage along the Costa del Sol to the resort town of Marbella.
Italy's MG team rider just beat out Russia's Dimitri Konyshev, who made a late burst 700m from the line, for the stage win in this 196.5km stretch from Almeria to Malaga.
Baldato took advantage of great work by his team over the final kilometres to earn 12 bonus seconds, putting him 11 seconds ahead of Jalabert overall.
However Jalabert was not too upset he had lost the lead. "It's not too bad if I lose the leadership. The important thing is to keep ahead of the good climbers," he said.
After the first 30km stretch along the Andalusian coast, Italy's Marco Di Renzo and Spain's Francisco Cabello made a break which shook the pack out of its lethargy.
Di Renzo and Cabello had such a large lead -- they were 19 minutes ahead at midway -- that they had a serious chance of leading the riders home at Malaga.
But major inroads were made into their advantage once the MG and Saeco riders took charge of the chasing bunch.
The two riders were eventually caught about 10km from the line leaving the stage to be won by the sprint specialists.
This sixth stage saw the retirements of Denmark's Jesper Skibby and of Holland's Bart Voskamp.