We join you in Plauen, Saxony, Germany for the start of Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de France. A sprinter's day with just two categorised climbs which should have no bearing on our finale today. Atypically this is just the second sprint stage in the first week, and so a microcosm of how it'll be throughout this tour - scattered sprint stages, in fact there's never two in a row! Though it's no transition stage after the mountains, a lengthy 208km today to Weiden in der Oberpfalz, along with the tough previous few days could show the recovery abilities of our sprinters, but none of them will be too tired.
Plauen is near the border with both Bavaria and the Czech Republic - where the last and next stage take place, and today we'll travel south to the beautiful historic city of Weiden. Ahlstrand will be hoping to repeat his Prague success, but second place that day Cavendish will hope to make it 3 from 3 for wildcard and now home team Kraftwerk, who are having a wildly sucessful opening week! Meanwhile home rider Mohs will hope to bounce back from a lacklustre opening day and give his wildcard team Fablok some joy after two podiums in the last two days but no stage win yet. The German is from Leipzig, not too far from here and so should have some support from family and friends on the startline today.
Boeckmans is another name who will hope to bounce back from a disappointing first sprint four days ago, whilst Grosu showed great speed in Prague and will hope to find better positioning to take a win today.
A rather large 8-man break get away, they are: Bru (3rd KoM, 22pts, 4th Points, 28pts) Hivert Frison Eaton Le Roux (1st KoM, 30pts) Nareklishvili Archbold Korsaeth. A lot of TT power in this break and with 8 men the peloton may want to be careful, especially with a slightly downhill run-in to the finish! Bru obviously knows how to do it after his great ride to finish in the first group yesterday after being in the breakaway.
Le Roux takes out the Cat.4 KoM ahead of Nareklishvili (who attacked early and did a great job until the last 100m) and Bru, to extend his KoM lead and he will wear the jersey for another two days at least, before the competition really heats up in the Vosges.
Meanwhile Volvo are putting down a fast pace, trying to catch this breakaway!
In the end 40km into the stage they do make the catch!
Hivert attacked again and the polka-dot jersey of Le Roux followed to form a two-man final breakaway, as everybody else seems too tired to try again.
This allowed for our first peloton intermediate sprint of the week, and Houle went early to deny Cavendish and Vesely.
Berg shoulders much of the work today with occasional help from eBuddy, Kraftwerk and Volvo. The gap hovering around 3 minutes for most of the day.
Hivert did push him but Le Roux comfortably takes the Cat.3, extending his lead over Bru and Boroš to 18 points, whilst Naud is the only rider to go for the last two points in the peloton.
Meanwhile at the second intermediate sprint in Falkenburg not long after, Kupfernagel takes 2 points.
The sprint teams take over on the run-in to Weiden and make the catch of the break duo with 12km to go!
No sprint trains yet but Denz is really whipping up the pace in the bunch with 5km to go!
The eBuddy train of Calmejane-Gerts-Grosu are in full control with under 3km to go as we approach Weiden, the Volvo train of Ariesen-Bertilsson-Ahlstrand is three bike lengths behind, with Houle, Mansilla, Tzortzakis, Havik, Reinhardt and Cavendish close behind, ahead of a cluster of GC riders and sprinters.
Gerts launches with 1800m to go with Haller on the opposite side leaving Cavendish behind, meanwhile Guardini is the best placed sprinter behind Grosu as Tzortzakis and Reinhardt follow Cavendish and Havik and Mansilla and Houle follow Ahlstrand. No sign of Mohs, the next two Fablok riders visible are Stepniak and Bostner!
Gerts is a great rider but no sprinter and so it's a weak leadout from the Dutchman which has allowed Haller/Cavendish and Bertilsson/Ahlstrand to almost catch up with 1.2km to go! Guardini, Tzortzakis and Reinhardt also still well postioned, with the same riders still folowing Ahlstrand as well as Boeckmans and Kupfernagel catching up to the Kraftwerk duo out of shot.
Tzortzakis goes early to get the drop on Cavendish and Grosu, now launching under the flamme rouge, whilst Ahlstrand has some ground to make up but a lot of room to play with! Boeckmans and Kupfernagel still not onto Reinhardt's wheel, whilst Guardini and Houle have slipped back some positions, and Afewerki and Vesely are going but from a long way back! Then we can see the GC men trying to stay safe.
Tzortzakis still in the lead but Cavendish and Grosu are close and almost up to speed! Reinhardt and Ahlstrand looking to hit the gaps between the three, whilst Bertilsson is actually still going strong and Boeckmans is catching up.
Stepniak doing alright on the far side but he can't quite get in the wheel of Grosu who now is almost taking the lead! Cav not quite at the level of Grosu and Tzortzakis yet, whilst Ahlstrand with Mansilla in tow is coming very fast, but just 500m to come through! The Chilean with a great choice of wheel here. Meanwile Kupfernagel is also coming quick having come around Boeckmans, Afewerki is in his hweel, Bertilsson has cracked and Havik and Houle are slowly moving up!
Ahlstrand definitely the quickest but he's running out of road and Grosu isn't slowing at all! Tzortzakis is, but he's not cracking, meanwhile, Reinhardt is still not around Cav but is coming up and searching for the podium!
Grosu is still going very quick, overtaking the fading Tzortzakis here and not losing too much ground to Ahlstrand, 300m to go and it looks like the Romanian will hang on!
200m to go, Ahlstrand is past Tzortzakis and not done yet! It looks like Cav, Reinhardt, Tzortzakis or Stepniak could all finish off the podium, but only these two at the front can win here in Weiden!
A close battle for the podium with 100m left but it's surprisingly Stepniak who looks the best, Houle and Mansilla also very quick and that trio is gaining on Ahlstrand and Grosu! Too little too late for anybody except
Eduard Grosu, who takes a confident sprint victory here in Weiden! A great set-up from his teammates, especially Calmejane, and an assured finish from the Romanian Champ! Ahlstrand still looks like the best sprinter in this Tour de France but unlike last time out, his teammates couldn't place him well enough at all. He also couldn't find the longevity in the sprint of Grosu and faltered (if you could call it that) in the final 500m a little.
A photo finish for third between Stepniak and Houle, and the diminuitive Mansilla caps a surprising trio in the top 5 after selecting the right wheel - that of Ahlstrand! Cavendish didn't have the legs today and is only sixth.
Reinhardt was seventh, an ambitious Tzortzakis deserves better than his eighth whilst Kupfernagel manages ninth and Havik clings onto 10th ahead of Vesely and Afewerki. A dissapointing sprint from Guardini (13th) and Boeckmans (14th) but the former at least is saved by a great sprint from teammate Stepniak. No sign of home sprinter Mohs who is letting the side down greatly - who'd have though Fablok would manage such a great first week with no help from their top sprinters?
A rather chaotic but exciting sprint finish here in Weiden and although it might not have the entertainment of the last few stages or the epic drama of the Alpine treks to come, it's always an entertaining day at Le Tour. Thanks for joining us, see you again tomorrow for another GC shake-up, as we have a 25km Team Time Trial around Haßfurt! Taaramae will look for big time gains, whilst Spilak and Gesink will be very happy to stay ahead of the Estonian. Asides from perhaps Intxausti, Sicard, Haig or Dekker, everyone else will be somewhere in between!
