The breakaway has its day on Stage 6 of the Tour de France
Lutsenko solos to first Tour victory
Photo by:
Sirotti
For the first time in the 107th Tour de France, a member of a breakaway took the day’s flowers, as Alexey Lutsenko soloed to victory on Thursday’s sixth stage. Lutsenko adds a Tour de France stage victory to a Vuelta a España stage. Adam Yates, who took the yellow on Wednesday after Julian Alaphilippe was given a 20-second penalty for an illegal bottle, was secure in the race lead.
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The Course
The profile of the 191-km stage resembled a hockey stick, with flat roads leading to four categorized climbs: two Cat. 3 ascents and a Cat. 1 with bonus seconds on offer, before a uphill finish on Mont Aigoual, made famous by Tim Krabbé “The Rider”. It seemed like a day for the breakaway, with only light interest from the GC men.
Time for #TDF2020's second summit finish. Today, the riders will be traveling from Le Teil to Mont Aigoual, a climb that will be used for the first time as stage finish. pic.twitter.com/HP8jiI4YVG
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) September 3, 2020
The Breakaway
A strong octet dashed away early and rolled up a good gap on the peloton. Greg Van Avermaet and Edvald Boasson Hagen had Tour stage wins on their palmares, and Van Avermaet was best placed on GC. There was conspicuous lack of Thomas De Gendt in the move.
Behind in the peloton, Sam Bennett increased his lead in the green points jersey competition at the intermediate sprint with 64-km to go.
Into the final 50km of the stage.? @nicholasroche and the break are still working really well together. They've got 5'42" over the peloton with all of the categorised climbs still yet to come! pic.twitter.com/0xrihSqLUL
— Team Sunweb (@TeamSunweb) September 3, 2020
Nicolas Roche was first atop Cat. 3 Cap de Coste. In the yellow jersey bunch, Mitchelton-Scott, Ineos and Jumbo-Visma began to pull hard.
Trio of Climbs
The next three climbs were like a short staircase. Cat. 3 Col des Mourezes led to the long Col de la Luzette before the concluding Mont Aigoual.
The only way is up ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Here’s a looks at the closing kilometers of today’s stage as we see the advantage of the @GregVanAvermaet breakaway fall to 3’20” with the peloton really picking up the pace behind them. #RideForMore pic.twitter.com/VMqOfmHqZx
— CCC Team (@CCCProTeam) September 3, 2020
On Mourezes, Ineos grabbed the reins of the peloton. Three minutes ahead, Roche led the escapees over the top.
The opening slopes of Luzette saw Boasson Hagen and other escapees drop away from the front and a general splintering. Van Avermaet, Roche, Neilson Powless, Jesus Herrada, and Lutsenko were left with 21 km remaining.
To everyone’s surprise, Fabio Aru, already +3:30 on GC, attacked out of the peloton.
First Powless and Lutsenko pushed away from the others and then Lutsenko went clear. The Kazakh champion tipped up and over solo with 13 km to go. With Aru still up the road, his teammate Tadej Pogačar, third place on GC and white jersey holder, suffered a mechanical at a terrible time.
Vino pushing mini-Vino towards victory. #TdF2020 pic.twitter.com/aFD89fy7yf
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) September 3, 2020
Lutsenko celebrated over the line. Two and a half minutes later, Alaphilippe put in a show of defiance to take back a second.
Friday’s stage to Lavaur contains early climbs and a flat finish that favours the sprinters.
2020 Tour de France Stage 6
1) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana) 4:32:34
2) Jesus Herrada (Spain/Cofidis) +0:55
3) Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/CCC) +2:15
2020 Tour de France GC
1) Adam Yates (Great Britain/Mitchelton-Scott) 27:03:57
2) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +0:03
3) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:07
