Tour de France stage 6 LIVE: Pedersen and Campanaerts up the road on big day of climbing in the Pyrenees
The race enters the Pyrenees, for the toughest day of climbing so far at this Tour de France, with the Col du Tourmalet the headline mountain.
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT
Mission accomplished for Mads Pedersen! He's taken the points at the intermediate sprint, uncontested by Campanaerts.
Behind, Kanter, Philipsen and Girmay sprinted for the remaining points on offer (after Azparren and Garcia Pernia had been caught) finishing in that order.
130KM TO GO
It's calmed down again in the peloton among the big GC men, but Remco Evenepoel was held up taking a nature break, and now has teammates with him trying to pace him back into the peloton.
Meanwhile a two-man counter attack of Raúl García Pierna and Xabier Mikel Azparren have attacked out of the peloton, and are a few seconds ahead of the peloton, which is 35 second behind Campanaerts and Pedersen at the front of the race.
but a two-man counter-attack has formed with
KOM - COTE DE LOUCRUP
Pedersen has taken the point ahead of Campanaerts over the first (category four) climb of the day, but the real intrigue has happened behind. There was an upping of pace at the front of the peloton, with Van Eetvelt among those to accelerate, and some small gaps in the peloton opened up, with Pogačar keeping himself right towards the front.
The weather is hot out there today, with riders like Richard Carapaz (pictured) making sure to keep cool. The race is in the ‘red zone’ in terms of weather today, and there is a risk of thunderstorms later, but no sign of them materialising just yet.
Tour de France enters the Extreme Weather Protocol red zone but the show will go on
150KM TO GO
Campanaerts and Pedersen lead the race by 1:15. Artz has dropped back into the peloton - the TV has shown replays of his position on the handlebars, which it seems might have been what the commissaires were reprimanding him for.
Something has happened to Huub Artz in the break. He has been having long discussions with the commissaires car, and has now slowed up and allowed himself to be dropped out of the break. It’s unclear what he has been told by the commissaires, but he doesn’t look especially happy about it.
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160KM TO GO
The gap has continued to grow, now up to 1:25. This has become a chase between Pedersen, Campanaerts and Artz, against the NSN-led peloton.
It's likely that the race in the peloton will ignite again come the climbs later on, be it the upcoming fourth and third category efforts or the Col d'Aspin later on, when the stronger climbers will surely try to get into the break.
Artz’s presence in the break follows on from his Lotto’s approach from yesterday, when their rider Baptiste Veistroffer was the sole man up the road. Ever since star man Arnaud Dr Lie’s abandonment they’ve had to shift their approach, and are doing a good job so far of keeping their jerseys visible.
170KM TO GO
The peloton chasing behind is at 50 seconds. It's calmed down there, with the attacks no longer being made from it, and NSN having taken over the pace-setting. They're responding to Pedersen's presence in the break, on behalf of their own green jersey contender Biniam Girmay.
The leading trio are working well together, and are still building their lead. The road remains fluctuates between flat and slightly uphill for most of the stage's first half, so within their specialities.
180KM TO GO
Pedersen, Campanaerts and Artz have a lead of 25 seconds on the peloton. Some other riders have tried getting out the peloton to join them, including O'Connor and Ganna, but so far to no avail.
Inevitably, the irrepressible Mads Pedersen is on the attack too. The green jersey jumped out the peloton and bridged up to Campanaerts and Lotto’s Huub Artz. There are points to be won for him in the green jersey classification, with an intermediate sprint less than 60km into the race, before any of the mountains have been tackled.
And surprisingly, the first attacker right from the flag is a Visma-Lease a Bike, Victor Campanaerts. Visma must mean business today, and are riding on the front foot rather than passively. That bodes well for how exciting the stage might turn out to be later.
OFFICIAL START
Christian Prudhomme's head is out the top of the car, the flag is waved, and the race is on!
The riders in the neutralised section.
Before things kick-off and the race ignites in a matter of minutes, have a read of our thorough preview of the stage.
There is one non-starter today - Alex Molenaar, who had been riding such an animated race by getting into breakaways and spent a day in the polka-dot jersey, but yesterday went down heavily in a crash.
The riders are on the move in Pau, following the neutral service ahead of the official start.
Jonas Vingegaard continues to take no chances when it comes to his health at this race, again wearing a mask this morning to try to avoid infection. The Dane had a stressful finish yesterday when he was held up by the late crash, but thankfully did not go down himself.
One thing that is for sure is that many, many riders will be aiming to get into the breakaway. With such big gaps on GC already, including lots of strong climbers, today represented an excellent chance for a stage win from the break, which will surely be reflected in the battle to get into it come the start of the racing in about just over twenty minutes.
The big question today is how much of an impact these mighty climbs will have on the GC race? They are certainly hard enough to cause havoc if the GC riders race up it, but will the 40km from its summit to the finish, and the relatively shallow gradients of the category two climb of Gavarnie-Gèdre that they’ll climb up to the finish, be enough to discourage early attacks?
It might only be the first week of the race, but the race is already in the high mountains, with a stage that goes deep into the heart of the Pyrenees, and high up to some of its grandest summits. Two of the climbs from the region’ infamous ‘circle from hell’ are to be tackled - Col d’Aspin, and perhaps the most feared of them all, the Col du Tourmalet.
Hello and welcome to stage 6 of the Tour de France!
