Stage 6

The road

At the start

One climb, and wind on the way

Gerrans, Impey and Albasini still share the same time at the top of the race, with Froome three seconds back. Jurgen van den Broeck went home this morning with a knee hurt in yesterday's finish-line crash, and Maxime Bouet with a fractured wrist. Today is a hundred and seventy-seven kilometres to Montpellier with a single classified climb — and crosswinds expected in the second half.

How it was won

1. 133 km to go

   Cavendish down, thirty-three to go

   The peloton has been riding all day at a pace set by a team defending yellow and expecting crosswinds — fast enough that riders miss their musettes in the feed zone. With thirty-three kilometres left Cavendish crashes and needs a new bike, and spends most of what is left of himself getting back on, dragged by Peter Velits.

2. 2At the line

   Greipel wins, and Africa gets yellow

   Lotto-Belisol give André Greipel the lead-out he has been waiting for and he beats Sagan by a clear length. Behind them the bunch splits inside the last kilometre and Simon Gerrans, leading out his own sprinter, loses five seconds to his teammate — so Daryl Impey becomes the first African rider to wear the yellow jersey, in the city where Robbie Hunter took Africa's first stage in 2007.

The result