cycling: Tour de France Stage #6: Cavendish for third

Cycling: Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) today won his third stage of this year's Tour de France. He relegated Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step) and Daniel McLay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) to their places. Mark Cavendish took over the lead in the points classification again.

Bora-Argon 18 drives and drives and drives

After the first mountain stage on yesterday days it was the turn of the sprinters again today. On the way from Arpajon-sur-Cère to Montauban, the riders not only had to cover 190,5 km, but also cross three climbs. However, these only belonged to the third or fourth category and were located in the middle of the race. With the Japanese Yukiya Arashiro (Lampre Merida) and the Czech Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18), two riders who were not dangerous in the mountain classification, formed the breakaway duo, it was clear very early on that Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) would also wear the mountain jersey tomorrow becomes. The peloton let the two riders pull away by a few minutes, allowing them to decide the climb and sprint classifications amongst themselves. However, the two breakaways were not given a chance to win the stage, as the interests of the sprinter teams simply outweighed them. Out of the field, Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) grabbed third place in the sprint classification ahead of Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step). André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) did not take part in an intermediate sprint for the first time, so that it became clear to the spectators that the green jersey had already been given up.

Mark Cavendish passes Bernard Hinault

The breakaway duo was caught around 15 km from the finish line and preparations for the sprint began. The teams of the classification drivers and the sprinter teams positioned themselves at the front of the peloton and did not allow any more attacks. In particular, Team Direct Energie for Bryan Coquard participated in this high pace. In the end, however, he had no chance of winning. Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) against Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step) was the name of the duel in which the Brit was able to prevail again. Cavendish thus celebrated his third day's victory in this year's Tour de France and his 29th overall. He passed Bernard Hinault in the all-time best list and is now in second place behind Eddy Merckx. Daniel McLay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) landed a sensational third place ahead of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff). André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) did not get past 15th place today. Shane Archbold from the German team Bora-Argon 18, on the other hand, ended up in tenth place.

Tour de France Stage #6 – The day's result

Tour de France Stage #6 – The General Classification