Stage 6

The road

At the start

La Planche, and a new gravel ramp

Sagan won in Colmar and Alaphilippe keeps yellow, fourteen seconds up on Van Aert, with Bernal at forty and Thomas at forty-five — no gaps yet between the men who came here for the race. That ends today: seven categorised climbs in 160 kilometres, the Grand Ballon and the Ballon d'Alsace among them, and then La Planche des Belles Filles, with a new final kilometre of forest gravel above the old finish.

How it was won

1. 137 km to go

   Col des Croix

   Thomas De Gendt goes solo over the Col des Croix from the fourteen-man break as the first real mountain test of the Tour unfolds.

2. 219 km to go

   Col des Chevrères

   Julien Bernard turns the tables on the steep Col des Chevrères; over the top and down the descent only Ciccone, Teuns, Wellens and Meurisse remain to take on La Planche.

3. 34 km to go

   Ciccone turns the screw

   About 4.5km from the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles Ciccone lifts the pace, dropping Wellens and Meurisse; only Teuns can hold the Italian's wheel.

4. 42 km to go

   The GC group explodes on the gravel

   Where the tarmac turns to gravel the favourites detonate: Alaphilippe rockets clear to defend yellow, Bardet is spat out the back, and Geraint Thomas emerges in pursuit as Pinot digs deep.

5. 5At the line

   Teuns wins, Ciccone takes yellow

   On the brutal 24-per-cent gravel ramp Teuns edges away from Ciccone for a first Grand Tour stage win; Thomas overhauls a fading Alaphilippe, but it is Giulio Ciccone who wrestles the yellow jersey away by a whisker.

The result