Tour de France: History repeats as Cavendish wins stage 6 in Châteauroux

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Mark Cavendish’s extraordinary comeback continued as he won his second bunch sprint of this year’s Tour de France on stage six at Châteauroux.

The Manxman stormed past the Alpecin-Fenix duo of Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier to take the win ahead of Philipsen in second, while Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) finished third.

The victory is Cavendish’s 50th in Grand Tours, and brings him to just two wins away from Eddy Merckx Tour de France record of 34.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey, and he again played a key part in the lead-out at the finish. He instigated a lead-out train on the opposite side of the road from where Deceuninck-QuickStep had formed theirs, and the two trains competed side by side as the line approached.

Merlier took over for Alpecin-Fenix with Philipsen on his wheel, prompting Cavendish to surf onto their wheel from his lead-out Michael Mørkøv.

Both Philipsen and Merlier sprinted for the line, but Cavendish proved quicker than both and had the presence of mind to place his hands onto his head in an apparent reference to how he celebrated his victory here in Châteauroux 13 years ago, in 2008.

In fact, this is the third Tour stage Cavendish has won in Châteauroux, having also done so in 2011, and in the post-race interview, he compared the different approaches to the finish.

"It seems like every time we finish here it's been a different line. In 2008 it was uphill a bit, and I think it was further down the road. In 2011, it was still uphill a bit but it was short from the finish. Here, it was kind of downhill/flat.

"It's been ten years since I last won here. It's pretty special."

Once again he had his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates to thank, who took control of the peloton 2km from the finish with Julian Alaphilippe, and later Davide Ballerini and Michael Mørkøv completing the lead-out.

"We were talking about what to do in the final because there are so many strong sprint teams here all wanting to go for the front. So to take it on is a big ask, you always get swamped at the finish.

"As usual it was the other team that shared the work with us, Alpecin-Fenix, who came with the strongest team in the end. The wind was coming from the right, and Michael [Mørkøv] left the left-hand side for me to go, but I wanted just a split second longer in the wheels before I went. So I had to switch trains and go from there.

"But I'm so happy with that. You see the guys, you see how much they work all day. The world champion Julian Alaphilippe just burying himself in the last kilometre, that's so special."

The victory will inevitably prompt interest in Cavendish potentially beating Eddy Merckx's Tour de France record of 34 stage wins, a record that had for several years looked like an impossible feat for Cavendish to achieve, but now looks increasingly attainable.

Cavendish remains reluctant to talk about that, however, batting back allusions to the record asked in the post-race interview by joking: "Don't say the name, don't say the name!"

"I'm not thinking about anything. Again, I just won a stage of the Tour de France. If that was my first stage or if that was my 32nd stage, I'd just won a stage of the Tour. That's what people work their whole lives for. I'm very, very happy, that's all I've got to say. If I'm good enough to win 50 more, I'm good enough to win 50 more. If I'm good enough never to win again here, so be it."

How it unfolded

Stage 6 got underway in pleasant conditions, with no hint of any rainfall that partially affected yesterday's time trial.

After Deceuninck-QuickStep immediately shut down to the first attempted breakaway of the day featuring a couple of Lotto-Soudal and AG2R Citroën riders each, an eight-man group made up of a surprisingly high calibre of riders got a gap over the peloton.

Rather than the usual assortment of obscure names from small wildcard teams, this group contained classics stars Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) and Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), multiple Tour stage winners Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Søren Kragh Andersen (DSM), plus Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert) and Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Fenix).

Another strange thing about this break was how many of the top sprinters' teams were represented in it, leaving Groupama-FDJ and Arkéa-Samsic to try and prevent it going clear on behalf of their sprinters Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni respectively, with some help from Qhubeka-NextHash, who apparently weren't happy with having missed the break.

Although initially posing a real danger by riding together, the break soon lost its cohesion. Asgreen was left to single-handedly drag half of the group back when the break split in two, and upon regaining contact several riders refused to take their turns, meaning their advantage slipped from what had been almost a minute to barely a few seconds.

Van Avermaet was still very keen, however, and attacked alone away from the rest just as they were about to be caught from the bunch.

From the bunch, Roger Kluge (Lotto-Soudal) then attacked in pursuit of Van Avermaet, spending several kilometres in no-man's land before joining the Belgian, a combination the bunch was happy with as they sat up and stopped chasing.

So the definitive break of the day was formed after 40km of racing, after which the stage settled down into the familiar pattern, with the leading pair out front and Alpecin-Fenix and Deceuninck-QuickStep setting a steady pace in the peloton.

The gap remained steady throughout the day, mostly staying above one minute and never exceeding two minutes, as the peloton kept the leading duo well within their sight.

With just two riders in the break, there were plenty of points in the green jersey classification for the sprinters to contest at the day's intermediate sprint, 56km from the finish. It was a messy affair, with Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Victorious) wagging his finger at someone despite winning the sprint for third, and Cavendish's Deceuninck-QuickStep lead-out man Michael Mørkøv veering across the road to prevent Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) from a clear run-in, and thus taking fourth-place in the sprint ahead of Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates), Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) and Cavendish in a blanket finish.

The acceleration in the build-up to that sprint brought the gap to the break down to under one minute, and the peloton could see them on the long, straight roads leading towards the finish at Châteauroux, that might have seen crosswinds wreak havoc had conditions not been as calm as they were today.

The peloton delayed making the catch, wary perhaps of encouraging counter-attacks, and with 10km to go the gap was still 40 seconds.

That left the peloton with work to do in the final kilometres, and Van Avermaet and Kluge still evidently had energy left in reserve as they managed to retain an advantage.

Thankfully there was none of the carnage that characterised the first bunch sprint of the Tour three days ago, with Arnaud Démare's Groupama-FDJ lead-out man Jacopo Guarnieri the only faller in the finale.

The catch was made 2.5km from the finish, soon after which Deceuninck-QuickStep took control with their three-man lead out to deliver Cavendish to yet another Tour stage victory.