Tour de France 2012: stage six – as it happened

Good afternoon. Welcome to our coverage of stage six of the Tour. Paul will be along at approximately 1.45pm, but in the meantime here's Will Fotheringham's report from yesterday's stage, which was won by André Greipel ... Sky, having been told by Dave Brailsford to "stop dithering", were more prominent at the end of the flattest stage of the Tour than they had been in any of the preceding days but in an ironic twist Mark Cavendish failed to benefit, losing a Champs Elysées sprint for the first time in his career. On the fabled Avenue in Paris he has been unbeatable for three years; outside the Parc des Champs Elysées in Saint-Quentin – it jars like a street called Mayfair in Barnsley might – he finished only fifth to André Greipel. Bradley Wiggins and his directeur sportif Sean Yates both said after the stage that they had decided to get a grip on their race after being on the receiving end of events since the race left Liège on Sunday. There have been several punctures and six of their nine riders had been involved in crashes up to Thursday, culminating in the pile-up on Wednesday which left Cavendish and Bernhard Eisel cut and bruised and suffering whiplash similar to that from a car crash. Report (plus video highlights) continues ... Top 10 on General Classification 1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 24h 45min 32sec 2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling +07sec 3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quickstep +07sec 4 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team +10sec 5 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling +11sec 6 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team +13sec 7 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team +17sec 8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale +18sec 9 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Sharp +18sec 10 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan +19sec And the rest ... Who's wearing what jersey? Yellow jersey: Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) Green jersey: Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) Polka-dot jersey: Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) White jersey: Tejay van Garderen (BMC) Best team: Sky Procycling Combativity prize: Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ-Bigmat) Bradley Wiggins: 'It's been a mad first week' The first week of the Tour has been mad but it is always like that. You tend to forget how it is because it is really like this only at the Tour. You always hope it is going to be better, think it is mad because it is a certain year or because you are somewhere particular like Brittany and the roads are narrower, but every year it is just the same. It is something we are used to but it is still remarkable. It has been like that for a few days but hopefully it will start to settle down now. We have had a couple of straightforward, traditional bunch sprints, days when Cadel Evans and I do not have to be in there at the very end. At times, unless you are in the very front line of the peloton, it is a lottery whether you crash or not. Obviously I crashed out last year in the first week but that is not on my mind particularly. It is this year that counts. It is hard to explain what it is like but this is how it is: it only takes the guy next to you to take one little risk, to come up the inside, or have the road narrow slightly. There are percentages involved, you can place yourself in the bunch but you can be last or first in line and stay upright; anywhere in between, maybe not. Column continues ... 1.42pm: Afternoon all. Let's get straight into it, shall we? So far the sixth stage is shaping up exactly like the fifth one, with most of the riders trundling along and not too bothered about reeeling in a four-man break-away group. The escapees are Malacarne, Zingle, Zabriske and Kroon and they are 6'42" ahead of the peloton. But we are only 82km into a 204km stage, and there is category 4 climb to come at the 145km mark before we conclude, no doubt, with a frantic sprint finish. 1.49pm: "Can anyone help me?" pleads Brad Wilson, who thankfully provides some specifics about his problems. "I've been trying to think of songs about bikes but can't get beyond Queen's Bicycle Races. There must be others, right?" Presumably you only mean bicycles, Brad, since there are 666,000 songs about the motorbikes. In which case I am as stumped as you. Anyone care to link to other bicycle-inspired tunes? 1.56pm: "I'm sure he's a lovely bloke, but there's a bit of me would rather not see Greipel win stages, because that smile of his scares me," confesses Al Storer. "There's just something wrong about it. Am I alone in this?" I see where you're coming from: those grins tend to make the skin seem even tighter on a face on which the bones are very pronounced, conferring a certain fiendish skeleton feel. Still, if he did win today that would make an impressive hat-trick of stage wins, a feat that he also achieved in the Tour of Belgium in May. Does anyone know what the record for consecutive stage wins in the Tour de France is? I think this is called collaborative journalism, folks, rather than downright lazy journalism. 1.59pm: John McKnight was the first of zones of you to deduce that the Pink Floyd track "Bike" is about a bike. He attaches the tell-tale lyrics: I've got a bike You can ride it if you like It's got a basket A bell that rings And things to make it look good I'd give it to you if I could But I borrowed it 2.01pm: Barry Glendenning, who rather than write this thing himself has decided to stand over my shoulder telling me how to do it, informs me that Mario Cipollini won four stages in a row in 1999. Someone please give me some trivia to trump that. 2.03pm: "Looking forward to a day's slog to the sprint?" wibbles Nick Tebbut. "Hopefully Cav can stay upright and nick a last stage win before things start getting lumpy. Anyway, here's an execrable piece of Mark Ronsonage which is about as Ronseal as songs about bikes can be. I give you The Bike Song ." 2.05pm: We're jsut about at the 100km point, which is the riders' cue to take some sustenance on board. As the gulp and chomp, the break-away group remains 5'33" in front. 2.08pm: "In response to Brad Wilson's request for cycling songs, the song that often pops into my head as I pedal to work is Turin Brakes' fabulous Pain Killer," discloses Csaba Abrahall. "It includes the following verse: Summer rain, dripping down your face again Summer rain, praying someone feels the same Take the pain killer, cycle on your bicycle Leave all this misery behind This could almost be about a cyclist struggling up the mountains in Le Tour but, given some of the song's somewhat saucier lyrics, maybe it isn't. Who knows?" 2.14pm: Here, courtesy of Alex Dwiar, is the cycling trivium that I will be passing off as my own when Barry G comes by on his next patrol swoop. "It's the Giro and not the Tour (where as Barry points out Cipollini's four wins in a row is the record), but in 1929 Alfredo Binda won a whopping eight stages in a row - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. I reckon that's probably the Grand Tour record for most stage wins in a row." Thanks Alex! 2.19pm: After yesterday's break-away group nearly stayed in front all the way to the finishing line, the peloton is now starting to reel in today's upstarts. The lead of the front four is down to 4'48". Do riders ever listen to music in competition? If they perhaps this tune , to which Daniel Coughlin has alerted me by email, would inspire them. 2.22pm: "I'm standing by the intermediate sprint line in St Mihiel," yelps Matt Ayre. "They are going to come into town, fly around a series of corners and then be confronted by the road narrowing violently right before the line as it passes under a medieval gatehouse. Exciting!" 2.26pm: Fancy an ear-worm? You won't thank Joe Leythorne for this: "If it's songs about cycling, then surely Le Velo is the only valid choice for Le Tour," chirps Joe. "One man's Eurocheese is another man's Eurocool." 2.37pm: With less than 10km to go till the intermediate sprinter, and Goss and Greipel with realistic prospects of taking the green jersey off Sagan's back, there is much jostling for position in the peloton now, which is just 3'22'' behind the four-man break-away group. Meanwhile, John Mark Boling wants to tell us about another ode to the ordinary bicycle. "I humbly submit Freewheel Burning by Judas Priest, the rare song about cycling that does not include a drum machine or synthesizer." When you say 'humbly', John Mark, what you mean is 'wrongly'. That song is clearly about the iron steeds so beloved of Rob Halford & Co. 2.44pm: There goes the sprint: Goss made a break for it and Cavendish couldn't catch but was at least closer than he was at the finish ytesterday, suggesting he is regaining his form. Greipel chose not to contest this one, seeemingly conserving his powers for the finish in a bid to complete his stage hat-trick. "As Brad Wilson is on the 'Tour de France' page but can't think of any cycling songs, I assume he's never heard of Kraftwerk (see their song called 'Tour de France')?" quips Michael Wilbur, and approximately 873 others. 2.48pm: Joe Hill has got in touch to spread the word about a marvellous cover version of the aforementioned Tour de France by Kraftwerk. "I've always loved this by Stereo Total ," he cheers. "Top whistling!" Meanwhile, here is the full points breakdown for the just-ended intermediate sprint. Naturally, the four break-away leaders made the most gains. 1. Kroon (STB) 20pts 2. Zabriskie (GRS) 17pts 3. Zingle (COF) 15pts 4. Malacarne (EUC) 13pts 5. Goss (OGE) 11pts - 2'50" 6. Cavendish (SKY) 10pts 7. Sagan (LIQ) 9pts 8. Boeckmans (VCD) 8pts 9. Boasson Hagen (SKY) 7pts 10. Hutarovich (FDJ) 6pts 11. O'Grady (OGE) 5pts 12. Impey (OGE) 4pts 13. Popovych (RNT) 3pts 14. Albasini (OGE) 2pts 15. Bak (LTB) 1pt 2.54pm: The peloton has picked up the pace, now zooming along at an average of nearly 49kph. The leading pack is now jsut 1'33" in front. They won't be there for much longer, I'll wager. In other news, Alex Dwiar has returned to elaborate on consecutive stage victories, and much more. "As Barry said, Cipollini holds the post-war record for most TdF stage wins on the trot, but way back in 1909 the Luxembourg rider Francois Faber won five stages on the spin and won the Tour in the process. No one's beaten that since," insists Alex. "Faber's story is a sad one. He lost any chance of defending his title in 1910 when he injured himself crashing into a dog (unlike Burghardt there were no easy-crumple wheels then to absorb the impact). When the First World War broke out he joined the French Foreign Legion, and in 1915, at the age of 28, he was killed after being shot trying carrying a wounded comrade back from no man's land. He was posthumously awarded the Medaille militaire." 2.58pm: Tonight in the shower, I will mostly be singing the song of which Barney Marsh has just made me aware. "How about the genius that is Les Bicyclettes de Belsize by Englebert Humperdinck ?" parps Barney. "I have mental images of those epic sideburns wafting in the breeze. Majestic, it is." He's not wrong, folks. 3.00pm: Oh dear, a crash brings most of the peloton to a halt. It's not clear what happened but several riders went down, including Greipel. No serious injury appears to have been done and everyone seems to be back in the saddle but that certainly hasn't helped Greipel's stage ambitions. The gap to the front four is back to two minutes and there the peloton has been split in two, but it is not a major schism and soon they will surely be reunited. 3.18pm: After a brief comfort break, I'm back. And so is Daniel Coughlin. "There doesn't seem to be much happening as the Tour trundles along today, so I got to thinking about how the great French composer Ernest Chausson met his demise," reveals Daniel. "Seems that he lost control of his bike on a downhill, crashed into a brick wall, and died immediately. Buried at Pere Lachaise in Paris, later to be joined by Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison." 3.22pm: With 42km to go, the peloton, led by Michael Albasini, are 1'05" behind the front four. And ominous storm clouds are gathering near the finishing line, so things could get chaotic. 3.24pm: "This can really get into your head," warns Nick Horley of Tomorrow's My White Bicycle , which features bonus bellringing. 3.28pm: 36.6km to go and Zabriskie is the leader, heading the four-man group that is 45 seconds ahead of the peloton. Meanwhile, if bike-based pranksterism is you thing, then Mark Swinhoe has a link you'll like: "I give you two things that in themselves are not inherently funny: 1) Cycling, 2) The French ... but them together and you get Remi Gaillard - brilliant TDF-based comedy! 3.33pm: Sean Kelly on Eurosport is stressing the importance of the team in this stage, explaining that unless a sprinter has several chums around him at the front of the peloton, then he is likely to get squeezed out when push comes to shove. Everyone needs to be in position by the final 3kmm reckons Kelly. At the moment, Goss's team are the most prominent at the front of the pack. 3.44pm: Yikes! Another crash, with around 35 riders down and possibly a spectator. The cameras haven't showed what happened. Schleck is one of those down, as is Porte and Farrar - all of them are back on their saddles again after a long break but several others are still down. Giro d'Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal was down for about two minutes but has finally clambered back on board, with visible cuts on his legs. 3.49pm: The pack 23 seconds behind the break-away group now comprises only about 25 riders, adding intrigue to the iminent sprint finish. "Greipel might not take part in the sprint," opines Kled Ravn Cramer. "According to the official Tour de France' site: 'France Télévision has just interviewed the directeur sportif of the Lotto-Belisol team, Herman Frison who explained the injuries sustained by André Greipel today. 'He has pain in his shoulder,' said the Belgian about the rider who has won the last two stages. 'And he won't take part in the sprint today.' This could be a trick to divert attention, but if we can trust mr. Frison then it means that Greipel will not try to get his hattrick. Lotto will probably go for Greg Henderson in the sprint instead; the experienced Kiwi is not a top sprinter but he does have stage wins from Vuelta a Espana and Paris-Nice. It of course also makes it easier for Cavendish, Goss etc. to grab a stage win." 3.53pm: 16.8km to go and there's no sign of Cavendish. He's not in the main chasing pack, which suggests he is in the larger group that was slowed down by the crash and is currently trying to make up lost ground. "As for bicycle tunes, and as we are in France (well, some of us anyway), I think this one by Yves Montand is worth a listen ," croons Mick Byrne. "None of your techno stuff - a bit too gentle for the tour maybe, but quelle ambiance!" 3.56pm: And now, momentarily, for something completely different: until recently I had never seen Olga Korbut's hijinks on the uneven bars at Munich 1972. There's link to 'em in this article : see if it doesn't take your breath away." 3.57pm: Robert Gesink, who went down during that crash a few minutes ago, has been cycling manfully on but is in visible pain as he tries to catch up with the chasing pack, who are within 15 seconds of the front four. His team-mates are urging him on but he's seriously struggling. But not as much as poor Tom Danielson, who has just had to abandon the the race following the injuries that he suffered in the crash. 4.00pm: Valverde, Scarponi, Schleck are all trying desperately to make up the time they lost in the crash and get back to the main chasing pack. "Dutch TV are saying that many riders feel that the chaos in the last few kilometers is caused by the GC riders wanting to stay up front until the last 3 km, when they get the same time as the peloton should they suffer misfortune," reports James Cavell. "The 3km is a vital mark in the run into the finish for the sprinters teams, and the GC riders and their minders suddenly easing up at the front while the sprinters teams are trying to get to the front causes a 'wave' effect of braking and overtaking with space on the road running out. This makes perfect sense. It is quite dangerous to be accelorating through the pack trying to get to the front and then suddenly find a rider dropping back, almost heading towards you - if you don't have room around the sides to go past you need to brake, and then anyone following your wheel as you surge forwards can hit your back wheel." 4.04pm: According to Eurosport, Hesjedal is now seven minutes off the lead, which means that unless he summons something superhuman, he is out of contention for the Tour. 4.07pm: We're 4.5km from the finish and Orica-GreenEdge have a strong presence at the front of the chasing back (12 seconds behind front four), as they have done for ages. That bodes well for Goss. 4.09pm: Devoured! Three of the front four have been gobbled up, 2.5km from the finish. But Zabriskie remains stubbornly in front, by about 30 metres. 4.10pm: Zabriskie's resistance is broken, as Orica-Green Edge take to the front, vying with the Lotto team. Goss must be favourite for the stage at the moment. But Sagan and Greipel are well placed too. No sign of Cavendish. 4.12pm: What a finish! Goss is denied at the last again, pushed into third by Griepel, who is denied his hat-trick of stages by a fabulously powerful late dash by Sagan. And that's why he has the green jersey. 4.13pm: Here comes the chasing group, who crosss 2'09" behind. 4.17pm: Cavendish arrives with a group 5'45" behind the stage winners. Top ten finishes in Stage Six , which again was besmirched by crashes. 1. Peter Sagan 2. André Greipel 3. Matt Goss 4. Kenny van Hummel 5. Juan José Haedo 6. Greg Henderson 7. Alessandro Petacchi 8. Luca Paolini 9. Daryl Impey 10. Brett Lancaster General standing after Stage Six 1. F. Cancellara 2. B. Wiggins at 0.07" 3. S. Chavanel 0'07" 4. T. Van Garderen 0.10" 5. D. Rusmenchov 0.13" 6. C. Evans 0.17" 7. V. Itanibali 0.18" 8. P. Sagan 0.19" 9. A. Kloden 0.22" 10. M. Monfort 0.22"