Lotto Belisoll's Andre Greipel won the sixth stage of the 100th Tour De France in Montpellier.
Aix-En-Province was the starting town for this 176.5Andrei Greipel won the sixth stage of the 100th Tour De France in Montpellier.
Aix-En-Province was the starting town for this 176.5km stage to Montpellier in the Languedoc region.
With temperatures at 28 degrees, food and drink regulations were suspended for the day which started without Maxime Bouet who had broken his wrist and Jurgen van den Broeck of Lotto Belisol.
As soon as the flag was dropped, Luis Mata of the Cofidis team broke away and was soon in to a 5.30 lead. He led for over forty kilometres but was caught at the 44km mark.
The first sprint of the day came at Maussane-les-Alpilles after 63kms and Lotto's Andre Greipel took the points ahead of Mark Cavendish.
Twenty kilometres laters there was a crash involving Rodriquez and at the 90.8km mark, French hero Nacer Bouhani of FDJ was in so much pain that he had to get off his bike and abandon the race, taking the riders left in to 191.
In strong cross winds, Mark Cavendish was involved in a crash with 33.6kms remaining, thankfully, the British champion was able to get back on his bike and carried on towards a finish line where he had won in 2011.
Team Saxo Bank and Belkin were on the front of the peloton.
AG2R's Romain Bardot punctured and with 11kms remaining, Janez Brajkovic crashed. He was down for a long time but receiving medical treatment but did continue.
This was always going to be a stage for the sprinters and it did not disappoint when Andre Greipel went with about 200ms to go win the stage, ahead of Sagan, Kittel and Cavendish in 3.59.02
Darryl Impey now leads the race from Edvald Boasson-Hagen. Chris Froome is seventh and Nicholas Roche ninth.
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