2019 Tour de France Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2019 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Teuns wins on La Planche des Belles Filles\nBy Clara Beard
On his debut at the Superbowl of bike races, the Tour de France, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) took the win on the top of La Planche des Belles Filles. The Belgian accelerated passed his breakaway companion, Giulio Ciccone to celebrate his first victory at the Grand Boucle.
“It’s unbelievable,” Teuns said. “I knew since the Dauphiné that I was in good shape but to win at the Tour de France already this week is incredible. I didn’t expect to win here although I knew there was a chance for the breakaway to succeed today. I took my opportunity. In the second last climb, the four strongest came out from the breakaway. I knew Ciccone was the main guy. I’m so happy I finished it off. At the bottom of the climb, I saw my mum, my dad and my girlfriend. It brought me a lot of emotions.”
Despite finishing as the runner up on the day, Ciccone climbed into the yellow jersey and is now leading the race by six seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe.
“The yellow jersey was my childhood dream. Today I made it come true. It’s a beautiful achievement. It’s hard to believe. My goal and our team’s goal was to win the stage. I was pissed off that I lost the stage win but when I realized that I had the yellow jersey, the feeling of anger passed straight away. It’s wonderful. The Giro was my first goal of the year but as I came out of it with a great condition, we decided with the team that I’d do the Tour as well, for experience at the age of 24. I started even better than we imagined. We have a strong team to defend the jersey even though flat stages at the Tour de France are hard as well.”
Tensions were high before the first mountain stage of the Tour de France. As expected, it took a while for a breakaway to form, and after 15 kilometres, 14 riders escaped off the front. Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Serge Pauwels (CCC), Julien Bernard and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Nikias Arndt (Sunweb), Natnael Berhane (Cofidis), Thomas De Gendt and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Xandro Meurisse and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and André Greipel (Arkéa-Samsic).
After the separation, the peloton eased into a steady rhythm and allowed a maximum of eight minutes and 30 seconds by the time they hit the Ballon d’Alsace. KOM leader Wellens had some competition with Ciccone and Berhane, but had De Gendt to help defend his polka dots over each significant KOM.
The peloton showed more of an interest on the col des Chevrères, when Alejandro Valverde came to the front to inject some speed into the chase. The steep climb cracked every rider in the break except for Teuns, Ciccone, Pauwels and Wellens, and with 10 kilometres left in the stage, they were still holding a four minute advantage before the Belles Filles.
On the final climb, Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) and Mikel Landa (Movistar) both tried solo attacks out of the GC group, but didn’t have the strength to hold it after Alaphilippe, sensing his yellow jersey was under threat, had to go on the offensive himself.
Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) was the first man to attack from the peloton before Mikel Landa (Movistar) who was eventually reeled in because of a late acceleration by Julian Alaphilippe. The final climb caused fracturing all along the road, and Ciccone and Teuns scaled the final climb to the finish together – Teuns just having slightly more in the tank in the closing metres.
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