Tour de France stage 6 Live – Can Mark Cavendish continue his record-breaking run in Dijon?

-119km

There is plenty of suspense on this part of their course, but no crosswind excitement yet. The host broadcaster has offered up some snippets of race radio, and the teams are all giving familiar instructions about the need to be out front in large numbers.

A Welsh flag flying by the side of the road confirms the crosswind at this point. Delegations from Visma, UAE and Ineos are all grouped towards the front, although they appear to have formed up for safety rather than with the express intention of forcing an echelon.

-125km

The intensity in the peloton has dropped since that intermediate sprint and for now no one seems tempted to attack. It is striking that the GC riders are all advancing, flanked by their teams. The wind will probably not be strong enough to split the field here, but caution is advised.

Intermediate sprint – result

1 Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 20 points

2 Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) 17

3 Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 15

4 Arnaud Demare (Arkea-B&B Hotels) 13

5 Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) 11

6 Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dnty) 10

7 Sam Bennet (Decathlon-AG2R) 9

8 Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty) 8

9 Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty) 7

10 Dorian Godon (Decathlon-AG2R) 6

11 Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 5

12 Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 4

13 Oliver Naesen (Decathlon-AG2R) 3

14 Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 2

15 Oscar Onley (DSM) 1

Girmay has a ten-point lead over Pedersen in the points classification thanks to his second place in the intermediate sprint.

-132km

Victor Campenaerts leads the sprint ahead of Arnaud De Lie, and the Belgian is so strong that he rides alone at the front for a while. He sits up for the sprint, where Jasper Philipsen takes the verdict ahead of Biniam Girmay, with Mads Pedersen third across the line.

-135km

Abrahamsen and Zingle’s outing ends 3 km before the intermediate sprint. They are swallowed up by the peloton, where the speed steadily increases.

-138km

Zingle and Abrahamsen still remain in front, 40 seconds ahead of the peloton. The sprinter teams take up their positions for the intermediate sprint, but the speed is relatively stable for now.

Abrahamsen and Zingle continue to ride ahead and the peloton closes in. The gap is 45 seconds.

The intermediate sprint in Cormatin is just over 10km away and there will be an injection of pace from the peloton as it approaches. By now the rain has eased, the sun has come out and the road is dry beneath their wheels.

-144km

Zingle and Abrahamsen have a 1:15 lead on the peloton, but they don’t seem to be planning on pushing through. The pair are chatting away now instead of riding through and away like they did at the start. The peloton has spread out across the road though, so they might stay out a bit longer.

Zingle was involved in a high-profile incident in yesterday’s finale – or perhaps more accurately, he helped limit the impact of one. When Mads Pedersen crashed on the main straight, Zingle had the presence of mind and reflexes to bunny-hop the fallen Dane rather than run him over, and that action may well have prevented more riders from crashing. Simone Giuliani has more here.

-149km

Pause:

Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Axel Zingle (Cofidis)

Peloton at 0:42

Abrahamsen is certainly not hanging around. After losing the green jersey to Biniam Girmay yesterday, the Norwegian seems determined to grab maximum points at the intermediate sprint after 30 km. He sets the pace with Zingle and the gap widens.

Zingle pushes through to the other side. You might have expected Abrahamsen to sit up after the climb, but the Norwegian chooses to push through and give Zingle a few turns. The two escapees have a half-minute lead on the peloton.

-153km

Zingle lets Abrahamsen take the top. This duo has a 25 second lead on the peloton at the top.

A dotted figure, Abrahamsen, rides away from the leading group with 700 meters to go, looking for the lonely mountain point on the summit. However, he is pursued by Axel Zingle (Cofidis).

-155km

The peloton is still intact as they reach the foot of the category 4 Col bu Blois Clair (1.6 km at 6%), while light rain is still falling during the Tour.

-157km

Jonas Vingegaard is one of the riders at the front of the peloton under this pouring rain. The pace has dropped a bit, but there will definitely be a movement from the king of the mountains Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) on the Bois Clair.

The peloton rolls through the light rain shower, still at a decent speed. In contrast to the cautious opening of the previous sprint stages, there is tension in the air here, largely thanks to the early climb and the early intermediate sprint.

-160km

The pace is high, that’s true, in these opening kilometers. And the aerial photo also shows that it will rain a bit before the race. The peloton will reach the foot of the short category 4 Col du Bois Clair in 5 km.

-163km

The flag drops and stage 6 of the Tour de France has officially started. There is no direct attack and the first excitement is caused by an aerial photo of a field-sized tribute to local hero Antoine Griezmann, who will of course be in action for France at Euro 2024 against Portugal tomorrow night.

It is 22°C at the start in Mâcon, with the sun peeking through the clouds. The wind is now just a breeze, at 16 km/h, and so any echelons, if they come, will certainly be in the final hour, when the wind is expected to increase. Yesterday, as in stage 3 to Turin, there was a very subdued start to the race – although the early category 4 climb and the intermediate sprint in Cormatin after 31 km could make for a more intense opening today.

The peloton broke away from the start in Mâcon and is riding through the neutralised zone.

The rollout is just 25 minutes away and there will have been much talk on the team buses in Mâcon about the potential of this stage for echelons. Experts suggest that the opening part of the stage and the final 45km are the most exposed to crosswinds. Vigilance is required.

Eddy Merckx has paid his own tribute to Mark Cavendish for claiming the record for Tour stage wins. “Congratulations Mark Cavendish on this historic achievement! What a nice man to break my record,” Merckx said in a post on Instagram. James Moultrie has more here.

General classification after stage 5

1 Tadej Pogačar (Slovakia) UAE Team Emirates 23:15:24

2 Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep 0:00:45

3 Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Team Visma – Lease a bike 0:00:50

4 Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:10

5 Primož Roglič (Slovakia) Red Bull – Bora- ​​​​Hansgrohe 0:01:14

6 Carlos Rodríguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers 0:01:16

7 Mikel Landa (Spa) Soudal-QuickStep 0:01:32

8 João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates

9 Giulio Ciccone (Italy) Lidl – Trek 0:03:20

10 Egan Bernal (Colonel) Ineos Grenadiers 0:03:21

Today’s stage from Mâcon to Dijon is flat, with just one category 4 climb – the early Col du Bois Clair – on the agenda. Another bunch sprint seems inevitable. The peloton rolls off at 13:35 CET, with the race due to reach kilometre zero at 13:50.

Mads Pedersen crashed on the straight yesterday, but Lidl-Trek has confirmed that the Dane is fit enough to start today’s stage.

Coach Vasilis Anastopoulos has been a key figure in Cavendish’s surprising renaissance at QuickStep in 2021 and has been vital to the Manxman’s success here again after joining the Astana-Qazaqstan staff during the off-season. He introduced altitude training into Cavendish’s preparation this year and the sprinter also spent sustained periods at Anastopoulos’ home in Greece in the run-up to the Tour. Anastopoulos was confident of Cavendish’s Tour prospects after studying his training files from the week following the Tour de Suisse. “The data I was told was capable of that,” he said. “He came back to Greece straight after the Tour de Suisse and we did sprint work all week because of all the climbing he had done before that.” Read the full story here.

When Cavendish reversed his decision to retire last summer, the prospect of a record-breaking 35th stage win seemed the obvious choice, even though lead-out man Michael Mørkøv suggested Cycling news earlier this year that breaking Eddy Merckx’s record was more of an excuse to keep racing than a burning goal in itself. Cavendish certainly has no intention of turning the rest of this Tour into a lap of honour now that that achievement has been accomplished. Today’s finale in Dijon offers another opportunity. “First of all I will try to enjoy it and secondly we will try to be successful again because that is fundamentally our job,” Cavendish said. “I love this race, I have always loved this race. I love this race when I ride it, I love this race when I watch it and I will always give it 100%.” ​​Dani Ostanek has more here.

Welcome to Cycling news‘ live coverage of stage 6 of the 2024 Tour de France. Tadej Pogačar wears the yellow jersey, but most of the headlines this morning are for Mark Cavendish after he broke the record he shared with Eddy Merckx to win his 35th Tour stage in Saint-Vulbas yesterday. Stephen Farrand was on the scene for us and sends in this report.