Tour de France stage 6 Live - Can Mark Cavendish extend record ...

2024-07-04T11:12:13.417Z

The roll-out is just 25 minutes away, and there will have been a lot of discussion on the team buses in Mâcon about this stage's potential for echelons. Those in the know suggest the opening part of the stage and the last 45km are most exposed to crosswinds. Vigilance will be key.

2024-07-04T10:36:05.176Z

Eddy Merckx has paid his own tribute to Mark Cavendish for claiming sole ownership of the record for Tour stage wins. “Congratulations to Mark Cavendish on this historic achievement! Such a nice guy to break my record,” Merckx said in a post on Instagram. James Moultrie has more here.

2024-07-04T10:19:48.416Z

2024-07-04T10:00:45.661Z

Today's run from Mâcon to Dijon is a flat one, with just a single category 4 climb - the early Col du Bois Clair - on the agenda. Another bunch sprint would appear to be inevitable. The peloton rolls out at 13.35 CET, with the race scheduled to hit kilometre zero at 13.50.  

2024-07-04T09:58:10.962Z

Mads Pedersen crashed in the finishing straight yesterday, but Lidl-Trek have confirmed that the Dane is fit enough to start today's stage.

2024-07-04T09:36:49.408Z

Coach Vasilis Anastopoulos was a key figure in Cavendish's surprising renaissance at QuickStep in 2021 and he has been essential to the Manxman's success again here after joining Astana-Qazaqstan's staff during the off-season. He introduced spells of altitude training to Cavendish's preparation this year, and the sprinter also spent sustained spells at Anastopoulos' home in Greece in the build-up to the Tour. Anastopoulos was confident in Cavendish's Tour prospects after poring over his training files from the week after the Tour de Suisse. "The data I had told me was capable of doing that,” he said. “He came back to Greece immediately after the Tour de Suisse, and we did sprint work for the whole week because of all the climbs he had done before.” Read the full story here.

2024-07-04T09:32:47.486Z

When Cavendish walked back his retirement decision last summer, the prospect of a record-breaking 35th stage win seemed the obvious draw, even if lead-out man Michael Mørkøv suggested to Cyclingnews earlier this year that surpassing Eddy Merckx's mark was more of an excuse to keep racing than a burning goal in itself. Certainly, Cavendish has no intention of turning the rest of this Tour into a lap of honour now that feat has been achieved. Today's finale in Dijon offers another opportunity. "First and foremost, I'll try and enjoy it and secondly we'll try and be successful again because that's fundamentally our job," Cavendish said. "I love this race, I always have loved this race. I love this race when I ride, I love this race when I watch it, and I'll always give it 100%." Dani Ostanek has more here.

2024-06-28T16:30:18.933Z

Welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 6 of the 2024 Tour de France. Tadej Pogačar holds the yellow jersey, but most headlines are for Mark Cavendish this morning after he broke the record he shared with Eddy Merckx and won his 35th Tour stage in Saint-Vulbas yesterday. Stephen Farrand was on the scene for us and sends this account.