Today was the sixth day of the Tour de France. The peloton had to cover a stage of 191.5 kilometres from Abbeville to Le Havre, with three climbs of the fourth category. At the end there was a tough hill of 850 metres and it made the difference. Zdenek Stybar won the stage. André Greipel remains leader of the points classification.
Three riders formed the break of the day: Quéméneur, Teklehaimanot and Vanbilsen. Despite their injuries Thomas De Gendt and Greg Henderson rode at the front of the peloton today. With twelve kilometres to go Vanbilsen had some energy left and he attacked. The peloton caught him three kilometres before the finish. In the final kilometre there was a big crash with among other GC leader Tony Martin, Vincenzo Nibali and Tejay Van Garderen.
Stybar crossed the finish line first, two seconds ahead of Peter Sagan and Bryan Coquard. Tony Martin remains leader. Tony Gallopin, sixth today, is still fifth overall, at 38 seconds of Martin. Greipel picked up some points at the intermediate sprint and now he has 161 points, three more than Sagan.
"Already before the race, we knew it would be a hard finale," Greipel said. "But eight or nine kilometres before the end, we made a big mistake. We lost position at a roundabout and lost energy to get back on. For us, the sprint was already finished before it started. It's a shame also for Tony Gallopin who could have done well today. It wasn't possible for me to get over the climb but I hope to be a winner again tomorrow."
Despite the severe injuries Thomas De Gendt, Greg Henderson and Adam Hansen all reached the finish line today. De Gendt decided to start even though he has a fractured rib after yesterday’s crash.
“Luckily the weather conditions were good today. If there had been enough wind, there could have been echelons, but that wasn’t the case. Very soon three riders escaped and it stayed pretty calm in the peloton. I rode at the front of the bunch for a while, because I thought it was safer than in the middle of the pack where there is a constant risk of crashing.
"Day one after the crash is over. Especially during yesterday’s stage I thought about leaving the race, but I’m happy with how it went today. From now on I look at it day by day. It’s hard to tell what the rest of the Tour will be like, maybe I can say something more after the rest day,” Thomas De Gendt said.
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