Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) displayed once again that he is in top form for this year's Tour de France after capturing his second stage victory of the Tour in Troyes on Stage 6.
Immediately after the peloton left the neutral area, a group of three riders broke away from the pack.
The three-rider breakaway group, which consisted of Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Perrig Quemaneur (Direct Energie), and Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates), wasted no time in their attack and quickly separated from the pack. Only 3.5 kilometers into the 216 kilometer long stage, the lead group of three had put a minute advantage on the rest of the peloton, before increasing the gap to 3:40 by the 10 km mark. During the first hour, the lead group was able to cover 40 kilometers.
After 69 kilometers leading the stage, the three-man breakaway group reached the first of two category 4 climbs for the day at the Cote des Langres. Direct Energie rider Perrig Quemaneur was the first one to cross the line at the summit, giving him the first mountains classification point of the stage.
By the 92 km mark, the breakaway's cushion on the peloton was slowly beginning to decrease, as they held a gap of 2:35 on the rest of the field, but the lead group was able to rebound and build their lead back up to 3:20 halfway through the stage.
At the intermediate sprint, sitting 135 kilometers from the starting line, in Colombey-les-Duex-Eglises, Wanty-Groupe Gobert rider Frederik Backaert beat out Leangen and Quemaneur, giving Backaert 3 points towards the green jersey, while Laengen captured 2 points and Quemaneur took a single point from the sprint.
On the second climb of the day for the riders at the Cote de la colline Sainte-Germain, sitting 62 kilometers from the finish in Troyes, Quemaneur was once again able to capture another mountains classification point, ahead of Backaert and Laengen.
With 30 kilometers left to go, the three-man breakaway still remained, and tried to raise their pace to hold off the approaching peloton. The 1:30 gap the lead group had at 30 km would slowly begin to be whittled down by the chase pack however. With 200 kilometers covered on the day, and only 16 remaining to the finish, Backaert, Quemaneur, and Laengen were still hanging on, each hoping they could take a surprise victory. The lead for the breakaway with 16 kilometers remaining was under one minute, at 55 seconds, and with 10 kilometers to go was cut down to 25 seconds.
At only 5 kilometers remaining, it looked possible for the lead group to hold on, as they kept a 20 second cushion on the rest of the field. With only 3 kilometers to go, and after leading the stage for 213 kilometers, Backaert, Quemaneur, and Laengen were officially caught by the peloton.
As the peloton approached the finish line in Troyes, teams had formed their lead-outs, with each squad looking to put their sprinter in the best position at the finish.
As the bunch sprint began 200 meters from the line, Marcel Kittel proved to be the strongest in the moment, and captured the stage victory. Kittel finished ahead of French national champion and Stage 4 winner Arnaud Demare (FDJ), who finished second, and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), who finished third and is still looking for his first stage victory of the 2017 Tour de Frace. Rounding out the top five for the stage were Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) in fourth and Nacer Bouhani (Cofidis) in fifth.
Team Sky's Chris Froome finished comfortably in the peloton, and will retain the yellow leaders jersey for Stage 7.
Despite his inability to beat out Marcel Kittel at the line, Arnaud Demare will once again wear the green jersey on Stage 7 and keep a 33 point cushion on Kittel in the points classification.
Fabio Aru (Astana) will keep the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification, while Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) will keep his lead in the best young rider classification.
Team Sky remains in the lead of the team classification.
Stage 7 will be another lengthy route, taking the riders 213.5 kilometers from Troyes to Nuits-Saint-Georges.
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