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Tour de France Stage 6: Dan Martin wins at Mur de Bretagne, Greg Van Avermaet keeps lead

Tom Dumoulin and Romain Bardet lose time, while Geraint Thomas moves second overall

Dan Martin of UAE Team Emirates has won today’s Stage 6 of the Tour de France at Mur de Bretagne this afternoon, attacking with just over a kilometre remaining  and holding off a challenge from AG2R-La Mondiale’s Pierre Latour to win, with Alejandro Valverde of Movistar third.

Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing remains in the yellow jersey as overall leader following a stage where late punctures caused two leading contenders for the overall – Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb, and Romain Bardet of AG2R-La Mondiale – to lose time.

Ahead of the finale, which featured two ascents of the Mur de Bretagne in the final 20 kilometres, crosswinds had caused splits in the bunch at times but the peloton was all together as they chased down the day’s five escapees. The last swept up on the first climb to the finish line.

Ahead of the second and decisive climb, Jack Bauer of Mitchelton-Scott attacked, while the punctures sustained by Bardet and Dumoulin meant they were missing from the finale.

Meanwhile, Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas picked up 2 bonus seconds to move into second place overall by the end of the 181-kilometrre stage from Brest– although his team mate and defending champion, Chris Froome, lost 8 seconds.

Philippe Gilbert of Quick Step Floors and Van Avermaet were among those prominent at the front of the bunch on the final climb, as was Thomas as well as Mitchelton-Scott’s Adam Yates, but none had an answer when Martin – second here the last time the race visited in 2015 – made his move.

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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RobD | 5 years ago
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Nibali seems to be one f the few leaders to not have suffered any major bad luck, unfortunately I think he could be one of the favourites at the moment, although it's hard to tell with him sometimes. Definitely feel the movistar's plan of 3 leaders is a gamble, or are they just that unconvinced that Quintana can still be in the running by the time the big mountain stages arrive?

 

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Nickrolyat | 5 years ago
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Anyone noticed how the luck is spreading itself out this year? . Porte Froome lose time with crashes, get some back in the TTT, Dumoulin keeps his gap after TTT but loses nearly the exact amount as stage 1 in stage 6. Good to see best rider not luck hopefully will come out on top...finally Richies year?

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jasecd replied to Nickrolyat | 5 years ago
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Nickrolyat wrote:

Anyone noticed how the luck is spreading itself out this year? . Porte Froome lose time with crashes, get some back in the TTT, Dumoulin keeps his gap after TTT but loses nearly the exact amount as stage 1 in stage 6. Good to see best rider not luck hopefully will come out on top...finally Richies year?

I'm not sure that Porte and Froome will feel that getting time back on the TTT is lucky - they will have expected to be in the top few teams on stage three so they're further down the leaderboard than projected at this stage.

I'm not sure it will ever be Porte's year to be honest - he's obviously in great form but we've seen this before and he just seems to lack the edge of a TdF winner. I would say that Nibali is a bigger threat given the parcours of Sunday's stage. 

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bobinski | 5 years ago
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Isn’t it about time they were all running tubeless or using some sealant in their tubs? There are so many punctures surely sealant/tubeless would help?

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kil0ran | 5 years ago
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Classic Dan Martin territory, reminded me of the Amstel Gold Race finishing on the Cauberg.

Froome loses more time on a short, sharp climb.

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