German Andre Greipel has won the sixth stage of the 2013 Tour de France in a sprint to the line, edging out Slovakian sprint-king Peter Sagan and fellow German Macel Kittel.
Orica-GreenEDGE’s success continued, with South African Darryl Impey becoming the first African to wear yellow after taking the jersey as race leader from teammate Simon Gerrans.
Impey leads Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway (Team Sky) in the general classification by three seconds, with Gerrans a further two seconds back.
2011 Champion Cadel Evans is in 23rd position, 31 seconds from the lead, while pre-race favourite Chris Froome (Team Sky) is eight seconds off the pace in seventh.
The flattest stage of the Tour so far, it was expected the 176km course from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier would be dominated by the sprinters.
With only one category four climb, the strong teams would have the opportunity to get their fast men into a position to the bunch for the line, with the rider with the strongest legs and best skills after almost four hours of racing the winner on the day.
This proved to be true.
Conditions were tough, however, a strong crosswind affecting the peloton and ensuring the pace was high to allow the riders better control of their bikes.
Stage 5 winner Mark Cavendish crashed with 32km to go and had to work hard to make it back to the main field.
Briton Cavendish finished fourth and was fuming after the race, blaming the incident on his bike.
There was a distinct air of nervousness about the peloton as the route wound its way through the south of France.
Orica-GreenEDGE once again set the pace early, their prominence and ability grown seemingly exponentially following their first stage win in the Tour de France in Stage 2, and with it the clear purpose of keeping the yellow jersey.
With the Australian team boasting the top three riders in the General Classification, and sprinters at that, and with the nature of the route ahead, their chances were good.
Australians Stuart O’Grady and Brett Lancaster, and Canadian Svein Tuft, did the hard work at the front of the peloton for their main men, dragging along those behind them relentlessly.
They weren’t the only ones at the front of the peloton however, with Team Sky, BMC and Omega Pharma-Quick Step also helping to drive the pace.
American team BMC especially had cause to keep men close to the head of the group on the road, with their main hope in Cadel Evans needing to stay in touch with the top riders to have any chance of a podium finish in Paris.
Marcus Berghart and Brent Brookwalter, who crashed during the fifth stage, pushed themselves all day for Evans, who started the day in 26th position, 26 seconds behind race leader Simon Gerrans and 23 behind race favourite Chris Froome.
The Australian is not known for his ability to attack and gain large time gaps from his rivals in the mountains, so he will need to minimize his losses on the flat stages if he wants to remain in contention.
It’s steady as she goes for the BMC team leader.
Sagan retained the green jersey in the sprinters classification, ahead of Greipel and Cavendish, while Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Michal Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) kept the polka dot and white jerseys respectively.
Friday’s Stage 7 is a 205.5km ride from Montpellier to Albi.
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