Taipei County, Taiwan - All week, Kyle Gritters of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis has been attentive to covering breaks. Today, his attentiveness in covering a move - and following course directions, even when the race officials didn't - earned him the win in Friday's Stage 6 of the 2008 Tour de Taiwan.

The rolling, 127 km stage was chaotic, according to team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo, due in large part to the rainy, windy conditions affecting the race. But he said things got really interesting in the latter part of the stage.

After a series of breaks - including one of 20 riders that included all the race leaders - came and went, Taiji Nishitani (Asian Racing Team), who came into the day sitting third overall, slipped off the front with another rider who posed a GC threat. As he had for the first main break of the day, Gritters covered and made the group, which ended up at six riders, including Valeriy Kobzarenko (Team Type 1), who had been in the early break as well.

The break opened a gap of close to a minute. Behind them, a group of seven riders, including overall race and points leader John Murphy of Health Net Presented by Maxxis, his teammate Roman Kilun and yesterday's stage winner and second overall Shawn Milne (Type 1), were giving chase.

The chase group closed to within 30 seconds of the break, with another 30 seconds back to the main bunch. Going through a corner on the wet course, Kilun slipped out on a manhole cover, leaving Murphy alone in the chase group.

"We didn't like the odds with that situation, so we had Murphy sit up and wait for the main bunch," Tamayo explained. Health Net Presented by Maxxis then put Kilun, Kirk O'Bee and Corey Collier on the front to bring things back together.

With Health Net Presented by Maxxis leading the chase, the gap had dropped to about 40 seconds. Then a bit of human-induced chaos ensued. Entering a round-about, the lead car in the race caravan led the break straight when they should have gone left. Four members of the break followed the lead car. Gritters, ever attentive, saw the red arrows marking the course pointing left and chose to follow the arrows. Kobzarenko wisely followed Gritters.

Suddenly, with five kilometers to go, Gritters and Kobzarenko, the former Navigators Insurance standout, found themselves alone on the road racing for the stage win, with the main bunch chasing them. Meanwhile, the four other break members were chasing back to the main bunch after the unintended deviation.

Gritters, who is a former U23 national criterium champion, bested Kobzarenko to earn the stage win.

As the main bunch neared the finish, three riders, including sixth overall Peter McDonald (Drapac Porsche) were able to separate themselves from the front of the peloton to finish 25 seconds behind Gritters, with Murphy leading in the peloton 11 seconds later for sixth on the stage. Luckily, McDonald only finished fourth on the stage, and therefore missed out on any time bonuses on the line.

But the 11 seconds gained on Murphy and the rest of the contenders moved McDonald up to second overall, just six seconds behind Murphy for the race lead.

Takashi Miyazawa (Meitan Hompo-GDR) was able to narrow the gap slightly to Murphy in the points competition. Murphy now holds a 16-point advantage in that competition.

With the two remaining stages both being flat, with a number of intermediate sprints - and their corresponding points and time bonuses on offer - Murphy's battle for the points competition and overall championship will be intertwined.