Tour de France 2024: stage six from Mâcon to Dijon – live

156km to go: Mads Pedersen is showing no obvious signs of physical distress after yesterday’s high speed crash into the barriers but his left arm and left leg are both mummified in bandages in the traditional cyclist style.

Anyone who has fallen off a bike while travelling at speed will know how difficult it is to get a good night’s sleep afterwards, what with your jimmy-jams or the bed-sheets tending to stick to the parts of your body that are suffering from road rash.

160km to go: It’s started raining, with the riders about seven-abreast across the wide road, with lots of jockeying position up near the front.

162km to go: Mark Cavendish is the only story in town this morning and he’s currently riding second wheel at the front of the bunch. He spent the half-hour or so between leaving the team bus and going to the start receiving the congratulations of assorted rivals, team officials and dignatories. His wife, Peta, and kids were also present to see him off.

They’re racing in stage six: Christian Prudhomme emerges from the sun-roof of his Skoda and semaphores the signal to begin racing with his big yellow flag. The riders are instantly called upon to navigate some elevated road furniture.

The peloton: There are 176 riders left in the race, which has lost just two participants in the first five stages. It’s a low attrition rate and Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step) and Michel Gazzolli (Astana Qazaqstan) are the only two riders to have abandoned this year’s race so far.

The roll-out has begun: The riders are making their way through the streets of Macon, still very much in the neutralised zone. Officially, they won’t start racing for another seven kilometres. Unofficially, they may not start for well over 140 kilometres, although today’s intermediate sprint is at the 33-kilometre mark.

There’s also one small speed-bump to negotiate this afternoon, which comes even sooner. The Category-4 Col De Bois Claire must be climbed about 10 kilometres into the stage. That aside, the stage could scarcely be more flat, so hopefully we’ll have some crosswinds to liven up proceedings.

Mads Pedersen: The Danish Lidl-Trek sprinter crashed into the barriers during yesterday’s stage and was taken to hospital for x-rays. They came back all clear and Mads is fit to start today’s stage, although he has revealed he’s suffering from road rash and a sore shoulder.

Cofidis rider Axel Zingle, who sounds like a character from the French equivalent of Emmerdale, was travelling behind Pederson as he went down and with the Dane lying flat on his back on the road, Zingle managed to bunnyhop over his prone body while travelling at full speed to avoid crashing into him and inflicting further injury. Mad skills, eh?

Macon: Today’s stage rolls out of Macon, which has a population of 34,000 and is the home town of Antoine Griezmann, the France international footballer.

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 23hr 15min 24sec

2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) +45sec

3. Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma/Lease A BIke) + 50sec

4. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 10sec

5. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) +1min 14sec

Christian Prudhomme: “Fans of medieval architecture will be treated to aerial images of Cluny Abbey and much more,” says the race director of today’s stage. “The breakaway will set off with the ambition of holding off the peloton’s pursuit though the vineyards of the Côte Chalonnaise, but the sprinters should have the last word on the 800-metre straight into the prefecture of the Côte-d’Or.”

Stage five report: Mark Cavendish broke new ground in the Tour de France, becoming the most prolific stage winner in the history of the race, as he took a record-breaking 35th victory with a typically instinctive sprint finish in Saint-Vulbas. Jeremy Whittle was there to see him do it ….

Mark Cavendish: To win a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage at 39 is a stunning feat of endurance in a sport where many careers last less than two years, writes William Fotheringham.

“The first of two days among some of France’s most legendary vintages, passing Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet and Pouilly,” writes William Fotheringham in his stage-by-stage guide. “This should follow the same pattern as the day before: a doomed breakaway and a hectic finale before a bunch sprint.”