Tour de France Stage Six

Stage Six:  Greipel crowned in Reims

Germany's André Greipel claimed stage 6 in Reims - the town where the kings of France were crowned - as his compatriot Marcel Kittel was left down by a mechanical in the last two kilometers. Vincenzo Nibali retained the lead on another rained soaked day with echelons on the roads chosen to remember World War I in the presence of the French president François Hollande.

Stage 6 was dedicated to the memory of the soldiers from World War I one hundred years after the conflict started, visiting former battle fields including the “Chemin des Dames” where the president of the French Republic François Hollande paid his yearly visit to the Tour de France. Tom Leezer (Belkin), Luis Maté (Cofidis), Jérôme Pineau (IAM) and Arnaud Gérard (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) attacked from the gun and secured a maximum time gap of 4.15 at km 21. The Giant-Shimano team led by “breakaway killer” Ji Cheng stabilized the deficit of the peloton around three minutes for most of the race.

A crash occurred with 79km to go. French champion Arnaud Démare (FDJ) who was racing on home soil in Picardy went down but the fall had worse consequences for Xavier Zandio, so Team Sky lost one more rider the day after Chris Froome called it a quit. Together with Zandio, Egor Silin (Katusha) abandoned the Tour de France. Another crash split the bunch when echelons were formed in the crosswinds at the “Chemin des Dames” with 65km to go when Omega Pharma-Quick Step put the hammer down. One of the riders involved, Jesus Hernandez (Tinkoff), also withdrew from the race, leaving Alberto Contador without his closest and most faithful team-mate.

Read more at www.letour.com/le-tour/2014