Zdenek Stybar of Etixx Quick Step took the victory on stage six of the Tour De France in Le Harve.
Stage six with Etixx Quick Step’s Tony Martin still in the lead saw a 191km stage along the northern French coast from Abbeville in Picardy to Le Harve, which was staging a finish for the 20th time in the race’s 102 editions.
A stage of three category four climbs and a sprint, started with 188 riders and Luis Angel Maté, the first to attack.
The Cofidis rider was brought back after 3.5kms and a kilometre and a half later, Perrig Quémeneur (Europcar), Kenneth Van Bilsen (Cofidis) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) were allowed to get clear by the peloton which had Edvald Boasson Hagen back in their ranks after a puncture.
When the trio with Quémeneur in the break for a third time since the race started in Utrecht on Saturday, left Picardy and moved into Normandy, the gap stood at 8.55 and after twenty eight kilometres, the gap was a whopping 12.30.
Lotto Soudal started to up the pace and slowly, the trio’s advantage started to decrease and at Saint Quen- Sous Bailly on the D149 road, the gap had dropped to 9.13 on a day where ASO had banned Etixx Quick Step’s directeur sportif Davide Bramati for the stage for not wearing a seatbelt when he was driving whilst celebrating’s Tony Martin’s win on Stage Four.
The first climb of the day was the Côte de Dieppe, a fourth category climb which was 1.8 kms long with an average gradient of 4% and Teklehaimanot took the only point on offer.
Through Dieppe with its beautiful cliffs and the lead was down to 4.40 as Teklehaimnot took the second climb – the category four two kilometre long Côte de Pourville-sur-Mer climb which has a 4.5% average.
That point put Teklehaimnot into the joint lead for the polka dot jersey with Joaquin Rodriquez with one climb of the stage remaining.
At the feed zone in Veules-les-Roses, the three leading riders were 4.15 ahead and were 4.58 with 81kms left.
The lead was 1.05 as Quemeneur took the sprint and the twenty points at Saint Leonard ahead of Van Bilsen, Teklehaimnot, followed by Degenkolb and Coquard before Damieno Caruso of BMC crashed at an island.
Onto the final climb and Daniel Teklehaimnot took the point on the Cote de Tillbul to take over the lead in the King Of The Mountains competition and become the first African to do so.
With twenty six kilometres to go, the trio were still 1.05 ahead and the gap was still over a minute ten kilometres later.
Into Le Havre with a twelve second lead for Van Bilsen after the other two had been swallowed up on a warm day.
The finish line was on the Route du 329th Rl and was 400 metres long after an 850 metre long climb and Etixx Quick Step were on the front.
The big guns were on the front and just under the flam rouge, Tony Martin and Nibali were involved in a big crash with Tejay van Garderen.
Zdenek Stybar picked his moment and he attacked. The sprint ensued but Stybar held on to win in 4.53.45 ahead of Peter Sagan, Bryan Coquard, John Degenkolb and Greg Van Avermaet
Tony Martin, who leds the race, gingerly got back on his bike and was helped to the finish line by his team mates, holding his left hand.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/JB