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Tour de France Stage 6: Mark Cavendish wins again (+ video)

Win number 29 for Dimension Data rider, with debutant Dan McLay sprinting into third place

Mark Cavendish has won Stage 6 of the Tour de France, his third victory in this year's race, outsprinting Etixx-Quick Step's Marcel Kittel in Montauban for the 29th stage win of his career, just five behind Eddy Merckx's record of 34.

Third place was taken by another British rider, Dan McLay of Fortuneo Vital Concept - his fourth top ten placing in his debut in the race, and the highest yet.

His victory today sees Cavendish move back into the lead of the points classification, while BMC Racing's Greg Van Avermaet retains the race lead, 5 minutes 13 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Julian Alaphilippe of Etixx-Quick Step.

The yellow jersey looks certain to change hands on tomorrow's first high mountain stage, which includes the Category 1 Col d'Aspin, the summit of which is just 7km from the stage finish at Lac de Payolle.

On a baking hot day as the race heads towards the Pyrenees, today’s break comprised two riders, Jan Barta of Bora-Argon 18 and Lampre-Merida’s Yukiya Arashiro.

The pair got away just 3km into the 190.5km stage from Arpajon-sur-Cère and built a lead of around five minutes at one point, but with brought back with 20km remaining.

One curiosity of this year’s race is that all 198 riders who took to the start at Mont St-Michel on Saturday are still riding.

The last time all the starters made it as far as Stage 6 was in 2000; 177 men began the race that year, although three had to pull out before the race began because their haematocrit levels were too high.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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5 comments

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Christopher TR1 | 8 years ago
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Well done Cav! (And my cyclist mag reckoned he was past his prime....).

 

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rjfrussell | 8 years ago
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what has happened to Greipel?

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handlebarcam | 8 years ago
1 like

Patrick Lefevere must be pretty pissed. Three TDF stage wins in three years with Quick Step and now, bam, Cav wins as many for Dimension Data in the first week. Beating their new big signing into second place twice in the process. He did give them one dominant Giro performance though.

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step-hent replied to handlebarcam | 8 years ago
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I do wonder how much of his upswing in form is because of his track training. He always said it complemented his road training, but Lefevere disagreed and didn't want him distracted. Now he's back to combining track with road, he's also back to winning multiple TdF stages...

handlebarcam wrote:

Patrick Lefevere must be pretty pissed. Three TDF stage wins in three years with Quick Step and now, bam, Cav wins as many for Dimension Data in the first week. Beating their new big signing into second place twice in the process. He did give them one dominant Giro performance though.

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kitkat replied to step-hent | 8 years ago
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step-hent wrote:

I do wonder how much of his upswing in form is because of his track training. He always said it complemented his road training, but Lefevere disagreed and didn't want him distracted. Now he's back to combining track with road, he's also back to winning multiple TdF stages...

He's said the track has helped a little but not a massive amonut plus he's heavier than he has been for the last couple of years

I think it's more to do with other factors, e.g. enjoying his new team, doesn't have the pressure to bag stages and doesn't have to have a big train to worry about. There's a couple of guys to keep him safe/get him in position then he picks a fast wheel (Griepel, Kittle, Sagan) to launch from. Great to watch  1

 

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