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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Simon Burnton

Tour de France 2017: Marcel Kittel wins stage six – as it happened

That’s all from me for today. It’s been wicked wicker. Bye!

Froome retains the maillot jaune.
Froome retains the maillot jaune. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

Updated

Tomorrow’s stage seven, then, looks quite a lot like today’s:

Tour de France 2017 stage seven.

Apologies for the hideous technical issues, which prevented any updates from going live for the crucial part of the stage. Anyway, it’s live now, so you can belatedly revel in the drama.

Chris Froome keeps hold of the yellow jersey, with the GC leadership unchanged.

Andre Greipel, who came third today, says this of the sprint finish:

We are not playing in thre sand here, we are going for stage victories so we have to fight for it, with respect for each other. It looked quite safe. Without touching any spectators I didn’t touch a rider.

Kittel speaks:

First of all I want to say I’m very proud of my team. They did a great job. We could really bring ourselves to the front in the key moment, and that was really important. I had to go at 250m to the front and it went perfect, I could start from a great position. I feel good at the moment. For sure I have the grene jersey in my focus, but for now what is important is that you get those victories.

Arnaud Demare stormed down the inside in the final sprint, squeezing through tiny gaps between rival cyclists and the railings. There may be some grumbling about that in due course.

Today’s top 10 in full:

In the final 50m Kittel eased out to the left of his rivals and just burst past them. Pure power, and nobody could match him.

Marcel Kittel wins stage six!

Kittel grabs his second stage win of the year, and his 11th overall, coming through in the final metres to secure a clear victory.

Kittel celebrates winning the stage.
Kittel celebrates winning the stage. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Updated

He’s gobbled up with 150m to go ...

Boasson Hagen goes for it, with 500m to go!

Edvald Boasson Hagen and his Dimension Data team appear poised, but this sprint is going to be manic.

They led for almost exactly 213km, but no more.

The front three now enjoy a lead of five seconds. It’s over.

It’s been a bit of a procession so far, but everything now is just perfectly poised.

News: “The Court of Arbitration of Sport issued a decision rejecting an urgent request for provisional measures filed by the Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan and the Denk Pro Cycling Team. Accordingly, Peter Sagan remains disqualified from the 2017 Tour de France.”

The helicopter camera shows us the front three, then pans back. The peloton is not far behind them, though their lead remains 25sec.

Here’s a news story on the Sagan/Caf business:

Into Villechétif, which means there are just 10km to go. The leading threesome lead by 25sec.

Here’s today’s final kilometre in full:

The front three lead by just 30sec now, and the advantage is shrinking very rapidly.

It is entirely and utterly flat, as far as the eye can see.

The lead is down to 45sec for Quemeneur/Laengen/Backaert, with 14km to go.

There’s a guy cycling one-handed across a tightrope by the side of the road, waving with the other to the cameras on the passing helicopters. There are a few lunatic cyclists to be seen on this Tour, but that one takes the galette.

The peloton has just reached Rouilly-Sacey, which can only mean that there are precisely 20km to go.

Next up for the leaders is the town of Géraudot. They’ve pulled out all the stops in Géraudot: a giant screen, a BMX demonstration, a jazz orchestra, and an exhibition of sculptures all await, as well as “vélos rigolos”. Hilarious bicycles?

The Forêt d’Orient, helicopter footage confirms, looks absolutely amazing. It like a giant forest, with some big lakes in!

Quemeneur/Laengen/Backaert, having led from the very start, now have 1min 31sec to play with.

“There’s only one church in Colombey-les-deux-Églises, so your desire to build another one would probably go down well,” writes Matthew Trim. “The other building was a priory.” I now like the place even more. It was named with ambition. If someone built a second church there, they should rename it Colombey-les-deux-Eglises-et-un-adventure-playground. Shoot for the stars.

Into the final 40km we roll, and that can only mean that the peloton will soon reach the Forêt d’Orient. Apparently this is “a mysterious land where water, forests and earth come together”. There are three lakes, and “more than 70 smaller ponds form a series of veritable aquatic gardens”.

Weatherwatch: there are violent downpours ahead, and the Tour is cycling right towards them. The first drops have apparently fallen upon Troyes.

The next town on the map is Vendreuvre-sur-Barse. The river Barse, pleasingly named for childish Englishmen, flows for 50 miles from Vendreuvre into the Seine. Its source lies directly under the Château de Vendeuvre-sur-Barse, to it is not just near-Barse but very literally sur-Barse.

There is now less than 50km to go. They should soon reach Magny-Fouchard, a place about which I can find no interesting information whatsoever.

Laurent Pichon has given up trying to catch the front three. He never got within a minute of them. “Just to say that the cross on de Gaulle’s grave was recently knocked down in the night, which added to the excitement in the recent French election, though it turned out that alcohol rather than politics was the main factor,” writes Graham Whittington.

“Not too sure why they need the gendarme,” writes Jonathan Wood, on the subject of De Gaulle’s grave. “Very unlikely le Général is going to try to make a break for it now, I’d have thought.”

Some inside knowledge here from William Fotheringham:

I think he should be allocated his own personal motorcyclist, who will ride alongside him carrying a large fake elbow attached to the end of a broomstick, with which he will at some point poke Sagan aggressively. There will only be one poke, but Sagan must ride the remainder of the Tour not knowing when it will come, perpetually in the figurative shadow of the elbow.

Climbing latest: Perrig Quemeneur took the point for reaching the top of the cote de la colline Sainte-Germaine.

Pichon is now a minute behind the front three, and a minute ahead of the peloton. His motivation remains unclear.

The Bahrain-Merida team director, Philippe Mauduit, has said that the conclusion “will be a man’s sprint, a sprint for warriors”. Gird your loins.

Either that or his muscles will have to be artificially fatigued to ensure fairness. I would suggest that he should dance, solo, to the Birdie Song, and that he should do so continuously, 12 hours a day, for two days, obviously with live coverage on the red button.

Laurent Pichon of Fortuneo-Oscaro has suddenly burst clear of the peloton. It is not clear why he has done this.

The front three are now on their way up the Côte de la colline Sainte-Germaine, the day’s second category climb.

On ITV4, the commentators are displaying a shameful lack of knowledge about the cépage of Champagne. For the record, pinot noir, pinot meunier and chardonnay are the three classic Champagne grapes, and pinot gris, pinot blanc, petit meslier and arbane are also allowed.

“I should really be working,” writes Neil Hanratty (a while ago, but for some reason after labouring with a demoralisingly quiet inbox for a while I’ve just had a big email-dump), “but I’d just like to ask about the two churches in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises and Charles de Gaulle. Which church did he get buried in, and does this cause some angst in the town?” According to the local tourist board, “General de Gaulle was buried in the cemetery in Colombey-les-deux-Églises”. That’s cemetary, singular. So presumably one church is graveless. “The grave is guarded throughout the day by a student gendarme,” they add.

By the time he had finished sprinting, Demare was only 1min 5sec behind the breakaway threesome.

It seems puzzling, sportingly. The road to having CAS juries poised pitchside to deal with questionable penalty decisions starts here.

Another contender for Tour pic of the day.

n young French woman rides her horse along with the peloton.
n young French woman rides her horse along with the peloton. Photograph: Yoan Valat/EPA

Updated

Arnaud Demare is next over the line, Bahrain-Merida having done a bit of work to let Sonny Colbrelli beat him to it, but he then squandered a 20m lead with 30m to go.

Frederik Backaert crosses the line first, with Laengen second and Quemeneur third. In the peloton, meanwhile, a proper sprint has begun.

Frederik Backaert has gone for it!

They still aren’t sprinting.

The front three, their lead currently 2min 22sec, are precisely 1km from the end of the sprint.

A press release from Bora-Hansgrohe:

The headlines: there guy didn’t do it. What’s more: “If the motion to suspend, on which the CAS will have to decide now, is granted, Peter Sagan will immediately re-engage in the Tour and, together with the team BORA–hansgrohe, compete for a successful Tour de France 2017.”

The sprint is about to be sprinted. These are exciting times. The leading three will be the first three across the line, but there are plenty more points to be played with.

The parasol in action:

Updated

A giant parasol has just blown into the peloton, miraculously not taking anyone out - nobody was going very quickly at the time, thankfully - but forcing several riders into evasive action.

A good yarn about a previous visit to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises:

Excellent hay-bale-arranging here:

The leaders are precisely 24km from Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, according to the sign they just cycled past.

The next place the Tour passes through is Jonchery, famous for being precisely 100km from the stage’s conclusion.

The riders have gone through Chaumont, famous (in poster and graphics circles) for the International Poster and Graphics Festival.

The leaders will cross the line of the sprint in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises in 45 minutes. It looks increasingly like the breakaway trio will be broken by then: their lead is currently 2min 27sec.

The gap is shrinking slowly: it now sits at 2min 50sec.

Notable Twitter exchange of the day (possibly):

Though this is probably the day’s finest picture. Again, there’s a long way to go. Photographers, consider the bar set:

stage six of the 2017 Tour de France
The peloton during stage six of the 2017 Tour de France. Photograph: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Still the highlight of the day so far.

The pack of riders cycles past a replica of the Eiffel Tower.
The pack of riders cycles past a replica of the Eiffel Tower. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Updated

The tour will soon reach Neuilly-sur-Suize, where the roads have been placed under guard to prevent slogan-painting. Villiers-sur-Suize has just been passed. Fact: the Suize is a tributary of the Marne river.

The next town to be rolled through will be Beauchemin, where there are apparently some nice roads.

Perrig Quemeneur was the first over the hill. The front three currently have a lead of around 3min 10sec.

The front three complete the climb in very low-key style. They just don’t appear to be particularly bothered.

The first of the day’s two category-four climbs, to the Côte de Langres, will shortly be broached. So, points. Not many, but still.

Apparently Bora-Hansgrohe have employed lawyers to dispute the disqualification of Peter Sagan with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Sagan is at home in Monaco but is “on standby”, ready to return to the tour should the decision go their way. Which seems spectaculary unlikely, particularly as CAS are yet to reply to their initial complaint. The story has been confirmed by the team’s press officer, Ralph Scherzer.

Look at this wicker Eiffel Tower. Magnifique. There can be no other word.

Updated

The leading trio are currently 4min 13sec ahead.

It’s only the accents that stop Perrig Quéméneur from having a fantastically encouraging sporting surname. On the nominative determinism front, I can’t think of many to beat it. Usain Bolt, perhaps?

The peloton has just passed some absolutely magnificent wickerwork. Those people from Fayl-Billot were not kidding.

André Greipel, the Gorilla himself, has had two third-place finishes and certainly should be in contention.

Coming up shortly: Fayl-Billot, the self-proclaimed “capital of wicker production & basket making”. “The region’s soil is ideal for growing willow with the robustness and elasticity required for wickerwork,” apparently. England’s cricketers could do with some more robust willow, from the looks of things, but I suppoose that’s another story.

Though Thierry Bricaud, the FDJ team director, has said today that “obviously the goals is to win a second” stage, after Arnaud Démare’s success on stage four. So further heroics are certainly the aim, though of course today might not be the day.

If you’re at a loose end, you could always watch brief highlights of yesterday’s actionn:

Team Sky are settled towards the front of the peloton, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome chatting to each other quietly as if sharing a genial pint. The scenery so far has been of flat fields and bales of hay. They seem to make a lot of hay here.

The breakaway has held a steady lead of around 3min 50sec for a while now, the peloton just keeping them vaguely in touch, with an absolute aeon still to go today.

They have only been racing for 17 minutes, and the three-man breakaway has already opened up a four-minute lead.

Nobody comes out of this looking good:

Fact-based update: the next landmark on the route is La Neuvelly-les-Scey, a tiny speck on the map which in the 1830s and 1840s swelled to a population of around 420, but which has had under 200 inhabitants for the last century.

They have rapidly opened up a gap of two minutes, and are still outpacing the peloton by a considerable margin.

Perrig Quemeneur, Vegard Laengen and Frederick Backaert are the breakaway trio. When not cycling, Backaert is a dairy farmer: his family runs 95 acres and has 90 cows.

The flag has just dropped, and the racing has just begun. And the first breakaway has broken away.

Hello world!

So, then, stage six. Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first. So it’ll look like this:

Tour de France 2017 stage six

Of which in our stage-by-stage guide we said:

Unless there is a strong side wind, this will be another bunch sprint after another day of “French flat”, but with a difference; a pattern will be emerging in the overall battle and whichever team is best placed will play a role in controlling the stage.

So two category four climbs and an intermediate sprint to look forward to. Another view of the stage profile:

And the top 10 of the general classification looks a bit like this:

It is blast-furnace hot in France today, with temperatures forecast to tiptoe towards 40C (and to actually hit 38C) while the riders are on the road. It’s a relatively gentle stage, but both quite long (216km) and quite hot. Breakaways, probably plural, are guaranteed.

The intermediate sprint is at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises; you’ll never guess how many churches that town has. If I had a bit of spare money and a lot of spare time, I’d build another church in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, and then sit outside a cafe enjoying the existential angst I’d caused. Important historical point: Charles de Gaulle lived (for a bit), died and is buried there.

Anyway, and most importantly, welcome!

Updated

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