After the electric bunch sprint in Saint-Vulbas on Stage 5 which was won by Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), to make Tour de France history, more sprint action is expected on Stage 6.
It’s a fairly short stage of 163.5km, which is virtually all flat and the breakaway will potentially set off with the ambition of holding off the peloton’s pursuit though the vineyards of the Côte Chalonnaise. There is one difficulty for the riders to overcome – the Côte du Bois Clair, a fourth category climb. The final stretch is made up of beautiful, mainly wide roads and then it’s into Dijon for another anticipated bunch sprint on the 800-metre straight into the prefecture of the Côte-d’Or.
Now that Cavendish has clinched his 35th Tour stage victory, making him the most prolific stage winner in the history of the race outright, will he be able to add more bouquets to his incredible record? There are several rivals who want to have a say about the answer to that question.
Those men include the likes of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X), Sam Bennett (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-dstny), Fabio Jakobsen (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and the current owner of the green jersey Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty).
An update on the condition of Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen is pending after he suffered a heavy impact to his back and left shoulder in a crash at the end of Stage 5. Initial x-rays revealed no fractures and a final decision on whether he can start Stage 6 will be taken this morning.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) should remain in the Yellow Jersey again, unless something unexpected happens amongst the favourites, though on the following day with the 25.3 km ITT on Stage 7 it should be ‘business time’ in the GC fight.
