Tour de France (6th stage): winner Martin and Bardet released in Mûr-de-Bretagne

5:40 pm: Dan Martin wins!

The Irishman attacked very early, before the red flame, and resisted the return of Pierre Latour and Alejandro Valverdo in the last meters, Romain Bardet lost nearly 30 seconds. The Frenchman had to change his bike before the start of the climb due to a technical problem.

5:35 pm: technical problem for Bardet

Romain Bardet dismounts and takes the bike of a crew member because of a technical problem. He remains in the peloton but in a bad position.

17h31: puncture for Tom Dumoulin

Three kilometers from the ascent of Mûr-de-Bretagne, puncture for Tom Dumoulin. He will waste time.

17h24: Bauer tops the bonus sprint

The New Zealand rider recovers 3 seconds of bonus. Geraint Thomas takes second place and recovers 2seconds. The Sky rider returns to the level of Philippe Gilbert in the overall standings, 3 seconds behind the yellow jersey Greg Van Avermaet

5:20 pm: Toms Skujins takes the lead

For the first crossing the peloton at Mûr-de-Bretagne, the polka dot jersey Toms Skujins took the lead at the top. By taking two points, he ensures the conservation of his distinctive jersey. In the downhill, New Zealand rider Jack Bauer attacks. He is alone in the lead, the first escaped runners were taken back.

17h15: Grellier in the lead

Fabien Grellier tackles the rise of Mûr-de-Bretagne in mind. He is chased by Dion Smith. The peloton is nearby.

17h13: Fuglsang returns

Helped by several teammates, Fuglsang manages to return to the peloton before the start of the coast of Mûr-de-Bretagne.

5:11 pm: 40 seconds apart

A few kilometers from the foot of Mûr-de-Bretagne, the peloton rolls very strong and returns to less than 40 seconds of the break.

17h02: fall and puncture in the peloton

Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step) falls in the peloton, without gravity a priori. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) is suffering from a puncture. The leader of the Kazakh team is 20 seconds behind and will tackle the climb to Mûr-de-Bretagne in a bad position.

16h57: Attack of Fabien Grellier

After the return of Damien Gaudin (Direct Energy), his teammate Fabien Grellier attack in turn. We fight the price of combativeness more than anything else at the head of the race, under the threat of a platoon that points less than 1 minute 30.

16h55: Damien Gaudin caught up

The four riders of the breakaway overtake Damien Gaudin in a false flat amount not listed

16h50: Evans and Vuillermoz, the last two winners at Mûr-de-Bretagne

The Tour has pbaded twice in Mûr-de-Bretagne these last years. In 2011, Cadel Evans won ahead of Alberto Contador. Four years later, the Frenchman Alexis Vuillermoz had surprised his world and had imposed himself before Dan Martin by attacking the leaders.

16h44: Damien Gaudin goes away

Damien Gaudin takes advantage of the intermediate sprint to distort company with four other escaped runners

16h42: Laurent Pichon wins the sprint of Plouguernével

In the breakaway, Laurent Pichon sprints and pbades first the intermediate sprint of Plouguernével. He won by 20 points.

In the peloton, Alexander Kristoff, Fernando Gaviria Rendon and Peter Sagan took the 6th, 7th and 8th place. Nothing changes in the general clbadification of the green jersey, the Slovenian remains largely in the lead with 188 points against 156 for Fernando Gaviria Rendon.

16h23: two climbs in Mûr-de-Bretagne

The riders will climb twice the Mûr-de-Bretagne at the end of the stage. A final cut for punchers like Julian Alaphilippe, Philippe Gilbert or Alejandro Valverde. Unless the evil Peter Sagan, already a winner of two stages, can not keep in touch with them

The stage was animated in the peloton. Following an acceleration of the Quick-Step, several leaders (Quintana, Fuglsang, Nibala …) were trapped. They ended up picking up quite easily, thanks to a portion of road less open to the wind. Only Slovenian Primoz Roglic had to fight with his team Lotto-NL Jumbo for more than half an hour. In this episode, the breakaway lost a lot of time and was only 1 minute 50 behind.

16h13: the gap under 2 minutes

The gap continues to decrease between escaped and the peloton, at 1 minute 52.

16h03: small fall for Roglic

Bad day for the Slovenian leader of Lotto-NL Jumbo! After having managed to return to the peloton, Primoz Roglic falls by striking a median. He got up rather quickly and did not seem hurt.

15h55: Roglic recolle

The Slovenian Primoz Roglic finally returns in the first pack. It took his team Lotto-NL Jumbo 40 minutes to bring him back to the group led by the Quick-Step

15h48: Primoz Roglic within 50 seconds

Lotto-NL Jumbo seem to come back little by little on the group of favorites. The breakaway, however, continues to lose time: the five leading men are only 2 minutes ahead.

15h43: the carriers of distinctive jerseys

Yellow jersey: Greg van Avermaet (BMC)
Green jersey: Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Polka dot jersey: Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo)
White jersey: Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb)

15h35: more than 4 minutes for the breakaway

The Quick-Step continues to lead a hell of a tempo to prevent the easy return of Primoz Roglic, pointed at 50 seconds with forty riders . With this border, the breakaway loses a lot of time. The first peloton is now back to 3 minutes 50, against 7 minutes ago.

15h31: the second group back

False alert! All the great favorites are now together! Nairo Quintana, Dan Martin, Jakob Fuglsang and Vincenzo Nibali, trapped by the acceleration of the Quick-Step team, managed to pick up in a part of the road less open to the wind.

A third group remains behind. In his midst, Primoz Roglic made his teammates Lotto-NL Jumbo to come back

15h23: Bardet in the lead group

Difficult to to know if leaders have been trapped by this acceleration of the Quick-Step. Romain Bardet is in the right group. Fuglsang, the leader of the Astana team, Quintana, one of Movistar's leaders, are in the second group.

15h21: the Quick-Step creates a break

The riders of the Quick-Step accelerate violently and create a break within the peloton

15h16: the Quick-Step starts to roll

Julian Alaphilippe's team was at the head of the pack to set a tempo. The gap, which reached almost 7 minutes 30, begins to cap slightly below 7 minutes.

15:07: Dion Smith goes on the coast of Roc'h Trévézel

And two! The New Zealand rider Dion Smith still earns a point by crossing the top of the 4th category, Roc'h Trévézel. The five leading men did not fight for first place.

Toms Skujins sees Dion Smith join him at the top of the ranking of the best climber with 4 points but keeps for the moment the polka dot jersey. The New Zealander will have to take points at Mûr-de-Bretagne to recover the famous jersey.

14h51 / 121 km: almost seven minutes

Slowly, the gap increases. The five leading men, Damien Gaudin (Direct Energy), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energy), Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo), Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) and Dion Smith (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) are 6 minutes 50 in advance.

2:27 pm: Dion Smith at the head of the first difficulty

Unsurprisingly, Dion Smith pbades at the head of the Ploudiry coast. He recovers two points and now has three points, one less than Toms Skujins tops the standings. Frenchman Fabien Grellier, who tried to attack the New Zealander, took second place

14h20 / 140 km: six minutes for the five

The gap continues to increase between the breakaway and the pack . The five riders now have a 5-minute lead

14:02: Dion Smith for the polka dot jersey

Wanty's rider – Groupe Gobert, Dion Smith, already has one point in the climbers standings. With a climb of 4th category and three of 3rd category, seven points will be distributed this Thursday. Sufficient to catch Toms Skujins who is only three steps ahead. But beware of the return of the best punters near Mûr-de-Bretagne: it will take Dion Smith also scratch a good place in one of the climbs to the legendary bump, otherwise it will only return to tie points with the Latvian

1:51 pm: the peloton lets slip

The five riders escaped already have 4 minutes 55 ahead of the pack. Damien Gaudin (Direct Energy), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energy), Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo), Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) and Dion Smith (Wanty – Gobert Group) have certainly gone for a long break under the sun.

13h35: five men in a breakaway

From the start, a breakaway was formed with five riders, including four Frenchmen: Damien Gaudin (Direct Energy), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energy), Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo), Anthony Turgis ( Cofidis) and Dion Smith (Wanty – Groupe Gobert). They already count more than two minutes in advance.

1:28 pm: the actual start given

After ten kilometers, the start Real of the 6th stage between Brest and Mûr-de-Bretagne has just been given. Right away, runners launched attacks. Among them, several French from the Direct Energie team, including Damien Gaudin. The peloton is already up, a first breakaway will be formed.

13h19: Vuillermoz winner in 2015

In 2015, the French Alexis Vuillermoz, teammate of Romain Bardet at AG2R-La-Mondiale, had won over above the legendary bump of Mûr-de-Bretagne, this year crossed twice. Like almost everyone, he expects a fight between punchers on Thursday.

13h12: a stage for punchers

The pack of the Tour de France will see double, Thursday, in Mûr-de-Bretagne, at the conclusion of the 6th stage 181 kilometers from Brest. The finish line, a climb of 2 kilometers at 6.9% slope, favors the punchers of the Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe or the Spanish Alejandro Valverde