Ireland’s Ben Healy struck out alone to win stage six of the Tour de France on Thursday, with Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel wrestling back the leader’s yellow jersey from reigning champion Tadej Pogacar.
Healy attacked from an eight-man breakaway, which included Van der Poel, with more than 40km remaining on the 201.5km ride from Bayeux to Vire Normandie, and pulled away to reach the finish line well ahead of American Quinn Simmons with Australian Michael Storer third.
Van der Poel, who lost the overall lead to Pogacar after Wednesday’s individual time trial, was unable to keep pace with the breakaway but moved back to the top of the general classification with a one second lead over the Slovenian.
Jeremy Whittle’s report to follow shortly.