Lotto-Belisol delivered their sprinter Andre Greipel perfectly at the end of a very nervous sixth stage of the Tour de France and the German did not disappoint his teammates. He beat Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Marcel Kittel (Argos) and Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in the sprint while Daryl Impey benefitted from a split in the peloton to take over the yellow jersey from Orica-GreenEdge teammate Simon Gerrans.

The Lotto-Belisol train of Marcel Sieberg, Jürgen Roelandts, Greg Henderson and Andre Greipel is known as the world's best and after having messed it up yesterday, they proved why at the end of today's sixth stage of the Tour de France. The team delivered Greipel perfectly to the line and Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish had simply no match to the speed of the German gorilla.

While the sprinting titans went head-to-head, the peloton split up behind and while yellow jersey Simon Gerrans was left behind, his 2nd-placed teammate Daryl Impey - doing the lead-out for Matthew Goss - was ahead. The difference between the two groups was 5 seconds and that allowed Impey to take over the coveted tunic from his teammate as the first ever African rider - coincidentally in Montpellier where his compatriot Robert Hunter had taken the first ever African stage win in 2007.

The sprint came at the end of a very nervous day in the saddle. The Mistral wind was feared by the entire peloton who had to race the most of the stage in strong crosswinds. Ultimately, the climatic factors did nothing to split the peloton but the nervous peloton made for a day where the early break was caught 132km from the finish line.

Inside the final 10km, Saxo-Tinkoff, BMC and Omega Pharma-Quick Step battled hard for control on the front of the peloton, the former two teams wanting to keep their GC riders safe. With 4km to go, they were unable to keep the front positions as Argos-Shimano hit the front to set up Kittel for the win.

John Degenkolb, Tom Dumoulin, Koen De Kort, Tom Veelers and Kittel formed a strong train and Degenkolb and Dumoulin both took some huge turns on the front. However, the Lotto train loomed just behind and with 1,5km to go, it was time for the team to kick into action.

Adam Hansen led the peloton until the flamme rouge where Marcel Sieberg took over. Sagan had positioned himself in Greipel's wheel while Cavendish was far behind.

While Roelandts took his turn on the front, Gert Steegmans was forced to make an early lead-out to put Cavendish into position, and the Brit could start his sprint just behind Greipel. The Manxman had, however, no speed to come around the German and instead he faded back into fourth as he was overtaken by both Sagan and Kittel.

The hard pace had seen the peloton split up and while Impey had no success in leading out Goss, he got a personal reward for his hard work in recent days as he took over the lead. He will take the jersey into tomorrow's seventh stage which is held on a very hilly route finishing in Albi. A sprint could be on the cards but it will be no easy task to keep everything together.

Starting at 14.00 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

One rider on the attack

Stages into Montpellier are always feared due to the heavy crosswinds and so it was a very nervous peloton that left Aix-en-Provence to tackle mostly flat kilometres 176,5km. Non-present were Maxime Bouet and Jurgen Van Den Broeck who had crashed late in yesterday's stage and were unable to continue the race.

From the gun, Luis Angel Mate was the first Cofidis rider to get into an escape in this year's Tour but no other riders had any interest in joining him in what was always going to be a suicide attack. He set off on his own and was allowed to build up a gap of around 5.40 until Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Orica-GreenEdge started to chase.

Tuft and Pineau chase

Svein Tuft and Jerome Pineau were both responsible for the early pace-setting but the peloton was extremely nervous. That forced the pace to go up and with 132km to go, it was already over for Mate.

Tuft and Pineau led the peloton all the way to the intermediate sprint at the 63km mark where Omega Pharma-Quick Step gave Cavendish a strong lead-out. In what was just a dress rehearsal of what was to come, Greipel beat the Manxman while Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) took 3rd and Sagan 4th.

Sky ups the tempo

Tuft and Pineau were back on the front moments later and led the peloton onto the day's only categorized climb. The teams all knew that the risk of crosswinds were strongest after that climb and so all the big squads rallied at the front of the peloton. Sky took control with Kanstantsin Siutsou, the Belarusian cresting the summit in first position.

Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) who has crashed yesterday, was dropped on the climb and the French sprinter fought for a long time to get back on. Clearly in pain, he kept losing time and with 90km to go, he decided to call it quits.

Teams try to split the peloton

Up ahead, the battle had really intensified and all the big teams were now positioned on the front while Tuft did an amazing work to lead the peloton and keep teammate Gerrans on the front. With 93km to go, Lotto saw an opportunity to create some chaos, hitting the front with Hansen, but they were quickly overtaken by Sky.

David Lopez, Geraint Thomas, Ian Stannard and Peter Kennaugh swapped turns on the front but the wind was not strong enough to create a selection. The next to try were Omega Pharma-Quick Step with Sylvain Chavanel and later Movistar and Jose Ivan Gutierrez hit the front.

Orica-GreenEdge back in control

Chavanel and his teammate Peter Velits had another stint on the front but with 80km to go, the peloton appeared to accept that they could not create a selection today. Instead, Tuft went back to the front and assisted by his teammates Cameron Meyer and Stuart O'Grady, the Canadian led the peloton for most of the remainder of the stage.

With 37km to go, Cavendish crashed and he faced a long chase until finally rejoining the peloton with 30km to go. Up ahead, BMC and later Sky had both taken control and upped the pace which did not make his pursuit any easier.

Brajkovic crashes

Sky, Saxo-Tinkoff and Belkin all had stints on the front of the peloton but with 15km, the battle between BMC, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Saxo-Tinkoff for control started. The inevitable crash happened with 13km to go when among others Janez Brajkovic (Astana) hit the deck. Badly hurt, the Slovenian finished the stage more than 10 minutes later than the peloton.

Up ahead, the peloton did not care and sped along at a rapid pace. It all ended up in that dramatic sprint that saw Greipel take his 5th ever Tour de France stage win.

Result:

1. Andre Greipel 3.59.02

2. Peter Sagan

3. Marcel Kittel

4. Mark Cavendish

5. Juan Jose Lobato

6. Alexander Kristoff

7. Jose Joaquin Rojas

8. Danny Van Poppel

9. Roberto Ferrari

10. Samuel Dumoulin

General classification:

1. Daryl Impey 22.18.17

2. Edvald Boasson Hagen +0.03

3. Simon Gerrans +0.05

4. Michael Albasini

5. Michal Kwiatkowski +0.06

6. Sylvain Chavanel

7. Chris Froome +0.08

8. Richie Porte

9. Nicolas Roche +0.14

10. Roman Kreuziger

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 159

2. Andre Greipel 130

3. Mark Cavendish 119

4. Alexander Kristoff 111

5. Marcel Kittel 87

Mountains classification:

1. Pierre Rolland 10

2. Simon Clarke 5

3. Blel Kadri 5

4. Thomas De Gendt 4

5. Mikel Nieve 3

Youth classification:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski 22.18.23

2. Andrew Talansky +0.16

3. Nairo Quintana +0.19

4. Tejay Van Garderen +0.25

5. Peter Sagan +0.28

Teams classification:

1. Orica GreenEdge  66.03.04
2. Sky Procycling  +0.08
3. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  +0.19
4. Movistar +0.25

5. Garmin-Sharp +0.27