Stage 6

The road

At the start

The second-longest day, and a jersey going spare

Cancellara still leads by twenty-three seconds from Thomas and thirty-nine from Evans, and Cavendish finally has a stage. Today is 227 kilometres across the open plains of Burgundy with four fourth-category climbs, the best chance the breakaway men have had. With a mountain stage tomorrow there is a real argument for letting one of them take the yellow jersey and the work that comes with it.

How it was won

1. 120 km to go

   Perget's late throw

   With twenty kilometres left Mathieu Perget goes alone off the front of a break that has been dying for a hundred kilometres. It is the second day running a Caisse d'Epargne rider has tried it, and the second day it fails.

2. 2At the line

   Twelve, and level with Zabel

   Another exact catch by HTC-Columbia, another lead-out from Renshaw, another win in Gueugnon. It is Cavendish's twelfth Tour stage and puts him level with Erik Zabel, the mentor who was waiting at the line yesterday.

The result