As expected, stage 6 of the Tour de France 2024 over 163.5 kilometres with the finish in Dijon ended in a bunch sprint. This was decided by centimetres: Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco-AlUla) and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) pulled away from the rest of the sprint competition and did not know which of them would be able to celebrate the day's victory when they crossed the finish line. After viewing the pictures, it became clear that Groenewegen's tiger jump had put him just ahead of Philipsen. However, after looking at the pictures again, the jury decided to relegate Philipsen to last place in the group. The reason for this was that he had pushed Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) to the barriers in the sprint.
As a result, Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) moved up to second place, with two Germans also finishing in the top ten: Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) was fourth, Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) finished ninth.
Groenewegen with a performance of will
While teams such as Uno-X Mobility and Alpecin-Deceuninck formed their sprint train at the front of the peloton in the final kilometre and then launched the sprints for Alexander Kristoff and Jasper Philipsen, Dylan Groenewegen was left to his own devices without any helpers. The Dutch road cycling champion stayed in the slipstream for a long time and used the rear wheel of Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) to attack in the finale. Groenewegen shot past the Belgian and in the end had the necessary luck on his side ahead of Philipsen. The Dutchman thus celebrates his sixth stage win at the Tour de France.
Yesterday I was a bit disappointed with myself because my team did a great job. Today I wanted to do better. I stayed calm and attacked at the right moment. The feeling of having won today is fantastic! - Dylan Groenewegen in the winner's interview
Tour de France 2024: Results - the top 10 of stage 6
- Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco-AlUla) 3:31:55
- Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
- Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) +0:00
- Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
- Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) +0:00
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:00
- Arnaud Demare (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:00
- Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) +0:00
- Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
- Piet Allegaert (Cofidis) +0:00
Tour de France 2024: The current standings in the overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 26:47:19
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:45
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:50
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +1:10
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:14
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:16
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +1:32
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1:32
- Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +3:20
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +3:21
How the 6th stage of the Tour de France 2024 went
After a quiet start in Macon, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) broke away from the full peloton shortly before the only mountain classification of the day. Only Axel Zingle (Cofidis) jumped on the Norwegian's rear wheel - the duo was then able to break away together. Abrahamsen secured the mountain point, further extending his lead in the special classification.
Philipsen wins intermediate sprint
The peloton gave the two escapees a maximum of just over a minute, but they subsequently lost some ground and dropped back into the peloton before the sprint finish 135 kilometres from the finish. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) secured the subsequent intermediate sprint ahead of green jersey holder Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who had crashed the day before.
Visma | Lease a Bike gets UAE into trouble
After the peloton settled down without any breakaway attempts, the Visma | Lease a Bike team came to the front around 85 kilometres before the finish and took command from then on. The Dutch team upped the pace and managed to provoke a break in the peloton on narrow roads and crosswind conditions. While all classification riders were represented at the front, the alarm bells were ringing at UAE Team Emirates. All the helpers found themselves in the back group - Visma | Lease a Bike had managed to isolate Tadej Pogacar. Some sprinter teams were also unhappy with the situation: among others, the top sprinters Jasper Philipsen, Mads Pedersen and Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco-AlUla) were also in the rear wind relay.
Second group closes the gap to the front
The gap between the two large groups was a maximum of half a minute. 71 kilometres before the finish, the second group then managed to catch up with the front, so that the race situation calmed down again after some hectic kilometres.
Although there was a fairly strong crosswind on stage 6 of the Tour de France 2024, neither the sprinters nor the classification teams were really interested in the formation of wind groups. They spread out on the road and used a controlled pace to prevent riders from breaking away. So everything pointed to a bunch sprint.
Final sprint in Dijon
And that's how it turned out in the end: Uno-X Mobility took a very offensive approach to the finale and opened the sprint quite early. Alpecin-Deceuninck then came to the front with Mathieu van der Poel, who launched for Jasper Philipsen - it briefly looked as if the Belgian team was in control of the sprint. However, Groenewegen then came up from behind and only managed to cross the finish line a few centimetres ahead of Philipsen. The Belgian was subsequently relegated to last place in the first group because he had hindered Wout van Aert in the sprint.
