Three years after finishing second to Alexis Vuillermoz at Mûr-de-Bretagne, Ireland’s Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) won the queen stage of Brittany ahead of another AG2R-La Mondiale, Pierre Latour, to score his second Tour de France stage win five years after the first one in the Pyrenees. Greg Van Avermaet retained the yellow jersey.
170 riders started stage 6 in Brest. Five riders went clear right after flag off: Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo-Samsic), Damien Gaudin and Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie), Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). The peloton gave the green light to Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) to go and greet his folks at Plouvien, km 11, at the beginning of a hugely popular stage. The maximum time gap was recorded at Commana before the ascent to the highest peak of the first part of the Tour, the Roc’h Trévézel where Quick Step took over from BMC at the helm of the peloton: 7’15’’ at km 65. Former polka dot jersey holder Smith crested the first two categorized climbs of the day in first position.
Echelons after the Breton mountain
Quick Step tried to open echelons after the Roc’h Trévézel. It split the bunch in three pieces. Caught in the second part, Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali, Ilnur Zakarin, Jakob Fuglsang and Dan Martin made it back as Astana and later Movistar were forced to a hard chase. Primoz Roglic was even further back in the third group. Soon after LottoNL-Jumbo brought him back before Carhaix (km 106), he crashed on a central reservation and chased again. Gaudin attacked from the front group after Pichon won the intermediate sprint at Plouguernével, km 135. 20km further, Gaudin and his former breakaway companions were reunited, with an advantage of 1’25’’ over the peloton in which Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) crashed.
Bad luck for Dumoulin and Bardet
Grellier was the last man caught at km 165, before the first passage on the finishing line at Mûr-de-Bretagne where Tom Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) extended his lead in the King of the Mountains classification. Jack Bauer (Mitchelton-Scott) countered and went solo. The Kiwi took three seconds bonus at the bonus point while Geraint Thomas (Sky) got two. Successively, Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) had a mechanical in the last 5km. The Frenchman made it across but not the Dutchman. Bardet lost contact with the first part of the peloton after Dan Martin attacked with 1.2km to go, following an acceleration by Richie Porte (BMC). Pierre Latour (AG2R-La Mondiale) countered but failed to catch the Irishman while Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) settled for third in front of his arch-rival in the uphill finishes Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step).
