2014 Tour de France Stage 6 Report

Stage 6 Arras - Reims 194km

After the cobbles the riders were treated to a flat day in Northern France. The days' break consisted of four riders: Jerome Pineau (IAM Cycling), Tom Leezer (Belkin), Luis Maté (Cofidis) and Arnaud Gerard (Bretagne). The four quickly achieved, and held an advantage of 3'10". Luis Maté took the only KOM point at the top of the 4th Category, Cote de Coucy-le-Chateau-Auffrique. By here the lead of the breakaway was cut to 2'45". There were two crashes, with about 80km to go, at the back of the peloton. Zandio (Sky) and Silin (Katusha) had to abandon the race. At the intermediate sprint, Tom Leezer took 20 pts and Mark Renshaw beat Peter Sagan to win the peloton sprint for fifth. With 65 km to go, the peloton split with a group including Sagan and Demare a minute behind the peloton. The Sagan group quickly rejoined. A thick fog enveloped on the peloton with 50 km to go and the peloton eased up. On the Cote de Roucy, Luis Maté took the only point at the summit and took his tally up to 3 points which takes him to 5th in the King of the Mountains competition. The peloton, led by Giant-Shimano and Belkin, caught part of the breakaway with 18 km to go. Just Maté and Pineau were left out in front. With 16km to go, Maté attacked Pineau and the latter was swiftly caught. Whilst at the back of the peloton, a large group of riders had been dropped including Thomas Voeckler and Daniel Navarro. Maté was caught with 11.7 km to go but was awarded the Combativity award. Marcel Kittel was dropped by the peloton after a flat tyre and Kwiatkowski attacked  in the last kilometre but Andre Greipel passed him to win his first and Germany's 4th of the Tour.

Stage 6 Result:

1.	GERGREIPEL André	135	LOTTO-BELISOL	04h 11' 39''
2.	NORKRISTOFF Alexander	23	TEAM KATUSHA	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
3.	FRADUMOULIN Samuel	84	AG2R LA MONDIALE	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
4.	AUSRENSHAW Mark	77	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
5.	SVKSAGAN Peter	51	CANNONDALE	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
6.	FRAFEILLU Romain	214	BRETAGNE - SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
7.	NEDVEELERS Tom	109	TEAM GIANT-SHIMANO	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
8.	FRACOQUARD Bryan	153	TEAM EUROPCAR	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
9.	BELVANMARCKE Sep	68	BELKIN PRO CYCLING	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''
10.	FRACHAVANEL Sylvain	192	IAM CYCLING	04h 11' 39''	+ 00' 00''