A Swiss stage win appeared to be on the cards for a long time thanks to a strong breakaway. However the peloton swallowed it up just before the finish. Jordi Meeus (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) secured the stage win in the sprint finish.
182 kilometres – that’s how long the trio of Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) and Harrison Sweeny (EF Education – Easypost) led this sixth stage. Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) started with them but later it was left to these three breakaway riders to fight against the approaching peloton. Several teams worked hard to bring the peloton closer to the break with around 1.5 kilometres to go. Belgian rider Jordi Meeus proved to have the best legs in the bunch sprint.
It was a bitter moment for the two Swiss riders who were caught so close to the finish. Mauro Schmid fought on, launching a solo attack in the last kilometre. In the end, however, he didn’t have the energy to fend off the approaching sprinters. For Stefan Küng there was a small consolation prize, as he was honored for his strong performance today with the award for the most combative rider.
Kévin Vauquelin stays in yellow
Today’s stage had no influence on the General Classification. The three leaders crossed the finish line in the peloton together. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) continues to lead by 29 seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and 39 seconds ahead of Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG).
The mountain classification is already decided after the sixth stage – Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) is the winner of this classification. The Russian has an advantage of 15 points which can not be beaten tomorrow. There are no KOM points in the final time trial on Sunday.
