Stage 6

The road

At the start

Two ascents of the Mûr de Bretagne

Van Avermaet still leads, two seconds up on Van Garderen and three on Philippe Gilbert, with Geraint Thomas fourth at five. Today the Tour climbs the Mûr de Bretagne twice — Brittany's own Alpe d'Huez, two kilometres of it, steepest at the bottom — with a time bonus at the top of the first passage and the finish at the top of the second. Michael Matthews and Tiesj Benoot did not start yesterday.

How it was won

1. 161 km to go

   GC names caught out

   As the pace lifts, Nibali, Dan Martin, Kruijswijk, Quintana and Landa all lose contact; Roglič is stranded even further back and burns through a 30km chase to get back.

2. 216 km to go

   First time up the Mur

   On the opening ascent of the Mur de Bretagne, Geraint Thomas darts for the two-second bonus at the top — a canny grab, or an energy-sapping gamble.

3. 32 km to go

   Porte lights the final Mur

   1,500m from the top Richie Porte lifts the pace on the wall, stringing the favourites into a line as the attacks load.

4. 41 km to go

   Dan Martin's revenge

   Dan Martin shoots off Porte's wheel with 1,200m to climb and soloes clear. Into a headwind, with Yates and Thomas straining behind, the Irishman refuses to be caught — redemption on the Mur that denied him three years earlier.

5. 5At the line

   Martin holds on

   Martin crosses the line a slim margin ahead of Pierre Latour; behind, Froome cracks and concedes five seconds to his rivals.

The result