The bunch set out from Mâcon —the home town of the poet Alphonse de Lamartine and the footballer Antoine Griezmann— at 1:52 pm. Mads Pedersen, draped in bandages after a nasty spill in the run-in to the finish of the previous stage, soldiered on, keeping the peloton at 174 riders ahead of the 163.5 km long stage 6. No-one made a move as soon as the flag dropped, but the pace was high from the get-go, with the top favourites, including the fellow in yellow, Tadej Pogačar, vigilant at the front. It was an obvious sign that the main contenders were on edge about the moderate crosswinds set to batter the peloton almost without respite across the Saône-et-Loire and Côte-d'Or departments.
Every little helps for Abrahamsen
The king of the mountains, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), upped the pace on the Col du Bois Clair, the only climb of the day, coming 9 km into the stage. Axel Zingle (Cofidis) was glued to his wheel but failed to stop the Norwegian from going over the category 4 ascent in first place and padding his lead in the mountains classification (26 points, six ahead of Pogačar). The two men pressed on over the top, bringing their margin over the peloton to 1′15″ before sitting up in the run-in to the intermediate sprint in Cormatin, 31 km into the stage, where Jasper Philipsen took top points. The Belgian outsprinted Biniam Girmay, who became the first ever African rider to wear the green jersey this morning, and Mads Pedersen.
Pogačar isolated for a split second
The peloton chugged along until Lotto Dstny tried —and failed— to force a split in the peloton. In the end, it was the European champion, Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), who managed to blow up the pack with 81 km to go, at the exit from Puligny-Montrachet, right when Mark Cavendish suffered a puncture. The yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar, found himself alone in the first group on the road after all his teammates were caught napping, but the peloton reformed 70 km from the line.
Groenewegen takes it in a photo finish
The tension in the peloton was so thick you could cut it with a knife, so the leaders clustered at the front of the race to avoid any nasty surprises before letting the fast men duke it out in sunny Dijon, where the Tour had last called in 1997. Alexander Kristoff's Uno-X Mobility sprint train led the charge under the red kite, but Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco–AlUla) derailed it to take the first stage win by a reigning Dutch champion since Léon van Bon triumphed in Tours in 2000. The photo finish did not lie: Groenewegen was the winner, while Jasper Philipsen had to settle for second, as he had done in Saint-Vulbas yesterday.
