Tour de France: Groenewegen pips Philipsen to stage six as Cavendish toils

Dylan Groenewegen of Team Jayco AlUla won stage six of the Tour de France from Mâcon to Dijon after Mark Cavendish was blocked out in the final km of the sprint on the Cours Général de Gaulle.

The Dutch sprinter, wearing bespoke sunglasses that feature an aerodynamic noise foil, or “beak,” as it has become known to the race convoy, edged out Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin Deceuninck, and stage three winner, Biniam Girmay, of the Intermarché Wanty team.

On a relatively uneventful stage, riddled in sunshine and showers, Cavendish was forced to chase back mid-race after another wheel change just as crosswinds whipped up and momentarily split the peloton, 90km from the finish.

As Cavendish battled to recapture the rear of the peloton, race leader Tadej Pogacar found himself isolated in the front group, with his UAE Team Emirates colleagues caught behind, but the Slovenian’s scare proved short-lived.

On the rolling roads through the vineyards of the Cote d’Or, Cavendish, a little surprisingly, was similarly isolated and had to chase back to the peloton on his own. But as the riders entered the final 10km of racing, he was back at the front with his Astana Qazaqstan team.

Once again, his team hugged the right hand side of the road, as they had on the approach to his record-breaking win in Saint-Vulbas at the climax of stage five. A crash seven km from the finish, in the heart of the bunch, took down several EF Education EasyPost riders and slightly delayed the peloton’s momentum.

Cavendish’s team kept the 39-year-old close to the front on the entry to Dijon but after all the hard work, they lost control of the pace. The British sprinter could only watch as his rivals moved ahead to contest the stage win.