Tour de France 2024: stage six from Mâcon to Dijon – live | Tour de France 2024

33km to go: It’s the nervy calm before the storm of the churning washing machine into which the peloton will be transformed as the stage reaches its knockings. Various riders emerge from the front of the bunch to receive bidons from team assistants, as a succession of empties are sent arcing through the air from the middle of the bunch towards the roadside. They’ll make nice souvenirs for the kids – and in some cases adults – scurrying to collect them.

38km to go: “UAE don’t seem to be covering themselves in glory as a team,” writes John Westwell. “All ending up in the second group when the split occurred, then having to chase back, seems to be a rookie error on a stage where crosswinds had been predicted at the start. And following on from the dissent between Ayuso and Almeida on the Galibier on Tuesday, it doesn’t reflect well on the team.

“Geraint Thomas said on his podcast that he thinks that Almeida and Ayuso don’t get on from what he’s seen of them in the peloton. And Ayuso sprinting to get third place in Valloire, after the rest of the team dropped off to ride in at a steady pace and save energy after the Galibier summit, suggests he’s got one eye on his own placing on GC rather than putting all his efforts into Pogacar’s win.

”It might be interesting to see how this subplot develops.”

44km to go: There’s been a crash near the back of the bunch as the riders negotiated a pinch-point and somebody clipped the barriers. It’s nothing serious and all involved reclip their cleats and get going again. Jonas Abrahamsen was one of them, along with a few of his Uno-X Mobility teammates. I think only one of them actually hit the deck but there are no injuries.

46km to go: Tmorrow’s stage is an individual time trial that’s a little over 25 kilometres in length. Here’s what race director Christian Prudhomme has to say about it.

“Great wines for great riders!” he writes. “But before venturing into the heart of the vineyards, the time trial specialists will spend almost two-thirds of this time trial on forest roads. The climb of the Côte de Curtil-Vergy (1.6km at 6.1%), which comes in the final section, will test their tolerance to pain. On the face of it, there shouldn’t be any big gaps between the best riders, but who knows?”

48km to go: We’re inside the final 50 kilometres and there’s not much going on at the moment but things will perk up in due course. The peloton is rolling along at 51km per hour, so we’ve less than an hour to go until the finish.

56km to go: Mark Cavendish has dropped out of the bunch again for a planned bike change, according to the chaps on Eurosport.

61km to go: Comparative serenity has descended on the peloton once again after that brief bit of wind-induced excitement.

68km to go: “I’m a new to watching the Tour (largely because I’m ill with covid at the moment),” writes Will. “Can you explain to me why this stage will probably not be exciting or feature any breakaways? Are there tactical reasons for this, or is it just that many of the riders are knackered from all of yesterday’s intensity?”

Well Will, first things first: I hope you get well soon. I’ve had covid twice and it’s not much fun. I just remember coughing a lot, being really tired all the time and not being able to concentrate on anything for more than two minutes.

The flatness of today’s stage means that it was always likely to finish in a sprint finish, but usually on days like these you’ll have a breakaway of kamikazee riders who invariably get caught within a matter of kilometres or centimetres from the line. Occasinoally on such days, the peloton will misjudge the chase and somebody from the breakaway wins, but those victories are few and far between. Indeed, we had one on stage one of this year’s Tour. The last 20 kilometres of today’s stage will be interesting, don’t worry about that.

71km to go: And relax. The gap between the two bunches has been closed and the peloton is reunited. Well, not quite: Cavendish is about 50 seconds back.

72km to go: Mark Cavendish is being closely policed by the race adjudicators at the back of the field and has been given a telling-off for drafting behind his team car. He’s not happy!

75km to go: Race leader Tadej Pogacar is in the front group but all of his teammates are in the second one. It’s not necessarily a problem for the maillot jaune, but it could become one if he has a puncture or a fall. The race leader’s team should not have allowed that to happen.

78km to go: There is a conspicuous, 27-second split in the peloton and anyone in the second bunch could struggle to get back to the one in front. If any GC notables have been caught out, the lads in the front bunch could seriously punish them. Sadly, Mark Cavendish is in the second group as he suffered a mechanical at the worst possible time.

80 km to go: The peloton is stretched, thy’re back out in the exposed countryside and there’s a light breeze. Tadej Pogacar has moved to the front of the bunch and is putting in a shift in the hope of creating a split.

80km to go: The peltoon is strung out like your nan’s washing, about 500 metres in length as the riders negotiate the narrow streets of a small town.

“As a New Zealander who has finally come to France, I’m really enjoying watching this live on TV at 3.40pm rather than 1.40am!” writes Emma.

84km to go: The peloton is moving with a lot more urgency, with the various GC teams fighting to hold their positions at the front of the bunch as they turn right off a motorway and are funneled through a small village. Ben Turner (Ineos) is at the front with Wout van Aert (Visma) .

95km to go: “Cav turning up today and not doing a [Mario] Cippoloni and retiring to the beach for the summer, has set the stage for more thrilling heroics at the finish line,” writes Bill Preston.

“Is it ever going to be possible for his record to be beaten? Some one is going to have to get a proper stomp on early in their career to be in with the slightest of chances. I suspect William Fotherington has covered all of this much better than I, though. His books are excellent, and it was a pleasure. To chat to him earlier this year about Paris Roubaix.” Yes, William is always good company and has forgotten more about cycling than most of us will ever know.

I believe that when he was embraced by Tadaj Pogacar at the end of yesterday’s stage, Cavendish implored the Slovenian not to break his new record. The current race leader is 25 years old and has won 12 stages of the Tour so far (with quite a few of the current Tour to go). At the end of the Tour he rode at the age of 25, Cavendish had 15 wins to his name.

96km to go: Between the one small climb and the intermediate sprint, I’ve literally had two jobs to do so far today and in all this excitement, with so much going on, I completely forgot to do one of them. Here is the full result of the intermediate sprint …

• 1. Philipsen 20 pts

• 2. Girmay 17

• 3. Pedersen 15

• 4. Démare 13

• 5. Coquard 11

• 6. De Lie 10

• 7. Bennett, 9

• 8. Teunissen 8

• 9. Rex 7

• 10. Godon 6

• 11. Van Poppel 5

• 12. Hindley 4

• 13. Naesen 3

• 14. Roglic 2

• 15. Onley 1

98km to go: “There really ought to be a special jersey for Cav,” writes Neil Moss. “You can’t have the all-time stage wins leader in a regular trade team jersey, can you? Thirty-five gold polka dots?”

That’s not a bad idea, although he might need a 36th gold polka-dot added to tomorrow’s jersey.

100km to go: Riding pillion on a motorbike at the back of the race for Eurosport, another German former cyclist, Jens Voigt reckons we can look forward to another 60 or so kilometres of this meandering nothingness before teams start trying to get their ducks in a row for the inevitable washing machine of a sprint finish.

106km to go: In case you’re new around here, I can reveal that neither Marcus Burhardt nor the dopey dog that wandered out in front of him were hurt in that crash, although the collision made short work of the German cyclist’s front wheel.

109km to go: With over 100 kilometres to go and nothing whatsoever happening, it seems to early to have to break the glass and reach for the tried and trusted Marcus Burghardt-hitting-a-dog video. Like the interview with Cavendish, that also happened in 2007. What a vintage year for cycling that was …

113km to go: Mark Cavendish won a record-breaking 35th stage of the Tour de France yesterday and was inundated with media requests in the immediate aftermath of his victory.

Back in the days before he had even started a stage of the Tour, let alone won one, he wasn’t in quite as much demand from the media but I agreed to chat with him.

I’d never heard of him before but ended our chat, which he told me was the first “proper” interview he’d ever done, being very impressed with his cockiness and good humour. It’s good to see that 17 years on, we’re both still on top of our game.

114km to go: “Just be awake and try to avoid any trouble,” was how Remco assessed this stage in an interview with Eurosport before today’s stage began, and it was good to see him taking his own advice.

117km to go: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) touches wheels with somebody and has a minor wobble but stays upright. It’s a very leisurely ride out in the countryside and there is little or nothing of interest to report. This year’s Tour has just passed the 1,000km mark. Just the 2,498 left to go.

123km to go: With their riders at the front of the bunch on the left side of the road, the Ineos Grenadiers race radio crackles into life. The team boss, Zak Dempster, tells them to stay where they are because “it’s messy at the back”. It’s inspirational, Churchillian oratory, although I’m not sure what else he was expecting his riders to do.

127km to go: There’s not much going on but the General Classification teams of Ineos Grenadiers, Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, UAE Team Emirates and Soudal Quick-Step are all prominent at the front of the bunch.

130km to go: Kevin Davey writes: “If we’re playing the old favourite of What is the Breakaway, Abrahamsen and Zingle was definitely a travelling circus troupe from the 1920s,” he says. It could be a long afternoon …

Intermediate sprint: Jasper Philipsen, the green jersey Biniam Girmay and Mads Pedersen are the first three riders over the line at the intermediate sprint.

134km to go: The peloton is intact again and looks conspicuously crowded towards the front, where everyone with an interest in picking up points wants to be. The intermediate sprint is only a kilometre away.

136km to go: Abrahamsen and Zingle remain in front with a lead of 30 seconds over the peloton that neither of them particularly wants. We’re about five kilomtres from the intermediate sprint, so they’re unlikely to stay clear for much longer.

142km to go: Abrahamsen and Zingle are still out in front together but not pedalling with any great intensity. It looks as if they’re just waiting for the peloton to catch them up.

146km to go: Abrahamsen and Zingle are still a minute clear of the bunch, although one suspects neither man particularly wants to spend too long exclusively in the other’s company. It’s not that there’s any animus between them, more that Abrahamsen has already done his day’s work by taking the KOM point and Zingle won’t want to be out in front on his own all afternoon.

154km to go: It continues to rain as the riders head up the first climb. Wearing the polka-dot jersey, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) sneaks up the inside and moves off the front of the bunch to snaffle the one King of the Mountains point available in today’s stage. He’s joined by Axel Zingle (Cofidis), who doesn’t contest the point but has probably been ordered to get himself in any breakaway.

156km to go: Mads Pedersen is showing no obvious signs of physical distress after yesterday’s high speed crash into the barriers but his left arm and left leg are both mummified in bandages in the traditional cyclist style.

Anyone who has fallen off a bike while travelling at speed will know how difficult it is to get a good night’s sleep afterwards, what with your jimmy-jams or the bed-sheets tending to stick to the parts of your body that are suffering from road rash.

160km to go: It’s started raining, with the riders about seven-abreast across the wide road, with lots of jockeying position up near the front.

162km to go: Mark Cavendish is the only story in town this morning and he’s currently riding second wheel at the front of the bunch. He spent the half-hour or so between leaving the team bus and going to the start receiving the congratulations of assorted rivals, team officials and dignatories. His wife, Peta, and kids were also present to see him off.

They’re racing in stage six: Christian Prudhomme emerges from the sun-roof of his Skoda and semaphores the signal to begin racing with his big yellow flag. The riders are instantly called upon to navigate some elevated road furniture.

The peloton: There are 176 riders left in the race, which has lost just two participants in the first five stages. It’s a low attrition rate and Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step) and Michel Gazzolli (Astana Qazaqstan) are the only two riders to have abandoned this year’s race so far.

The roll-out has begun: The riders are making their way through the streets of Macon, still very much in the neutralised zone. Officially, they won’t start racing for another seven kilometres. Unofficially, they may not start for well over 140 kilometres, although today’s intermediate sprint is at the 33-kilometre mark.

There’s also one small speed-bump to negotiate this afternoon, which comes even sooner. The Category-4 Col De Bois Claire must be climbed about 10 kilometres into the stage. That aside, the stage could scarcely be more flat, so hopefully we’ll have some crosswinds to liven up proceedings.

Mads Pedersen: The Danish Lidl-Trek sprinter crashed into the barriers during yesterday’s stage and was taken to hospital for x-rays. They came back all clear and Mads is fit to start today’s stage, although he has revealed he’s suffering from road rash and a sore shoulder.

Cofidis rider Axel Zingle, who sounds like a character from the French equivalent of Emmerdale, was travelling behind Pederson as he went down and with the Dane lying flat on his back on the road, Zingle managed to bunnyhop over his prone body while travelling at full speed to avoid crashing into him and inflicting further injury. Mad skills, eh?

Macon: Today’s stage rolls out of Macon, which has a population of 34,000 and is the home town of Antoine Griezmann, the France international footballer.

The top five on GC after stage five

Christian Prudhomme: “Fans of medieval architecture will be treated to aerial images of Cluny Abbey and much more,” says the race director of today’s stage. “The breakaway will set off with the ambition of holding off the peloton’s pursuit though the vineyards of the Côte Chalonnaise, but the sprinters should have the last word on the 800-metre straight into the prefecture of the Côte-d’Or.”

Cavendish powers to victory

Mark Cavendish: To win a record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage at 39 is a stunning feat of endurance in a sport where many careers last less than two years, writes William Fotheringham.

Stage six: Macon to Gijon (163.5km)