The 2023 Tour de France burst back into life on Tuesday as Australia’s Jai Hindley took possession of the yellow jersey with a win on stage five. Hindley pushed on with the breakaway with both Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma and Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates taking too long to close the gap, allowing him to claim a brilliant solo win.
Today’s stage six goes deep into the high Pyrenees, and the peloton will climb the iconic Col du Tourmalet en route to the first summit finish of the Tour in Cauterets. There are plenty of obstacles to keep the peloton interested over the 145km route with a small category three climb, an intermediate sprint before the Col d’Aspin and the difficult Tourmalet. A climb up to Cauterets concludes the day with the first summit finish of this year’s race.
It is all set up for another showdown between the podium contenders with a breakaway likely to form early but by the time the final climb comes around, the strongest climbers should be left at the front.
Follow all the latest updates from stage six below:
Tour de France 2023 – Stage Six
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Stage six map and profile of 145km route from Tarbes to Cauterets
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Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar set for another showdown
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Jai Hindley wears the yellow jersey after a superb stage-five ride
Tour de France stage six
13:37 , Mike Jones
92km to go: Bryan Coquard takes the maximum 20 points in the sprint classification (green jersey) for Cofidis. With two big mountains to come in the stage that’s his work for the day done and dusted.
He won’t be in contention to win the stage so don’t be surprised if he drops back to the peloton at some stage.
Tour de France stage six
13:33 , Mike Jones
96km to go: Those in the breakaway are positioning themselves ahead of the intermediate sprint. Wou van Aert is never the front but has previously said he isn’t interested in the green jersey.
Bryan Coquard is let through by Van Aert who takes to his back wheel and follows him over the line. Coquard takes the points for the sprint.
Tour de France stage six
13:28 , Mike Jones
100km to go: Bora-Hansgrohe have upped the tempo at the front of the peloton and are holding the gap between them and the breakaway at three minutes.
That will be cut sharply once the leading riders reach the next mountain climb.
Tour de France stage six
13:24 , Mike Jones
104km to go: A radio message from team TotalEnergies is very revealing. They are not happy. None of their riders went with the breakaway and the team officials are not impressed.
Tour de France stage six
13:17 , Mike Jones
106km to go: The time gap between the breakaway and the pelation atop Cote de Capvern-les-Bains is three minutes 15 seconds. Which is a decent lead but nothing too worrisome for the GC riders in the main pack.
The next challege is the intermediate sprint at Sarrancolin.
Tour de France stage six
13:13 , Mike Jones
111km to go: Today is the second time team Bora-Hansgrohe have the yellow jersey.
In 2018, Peter Sagan took it after winning stage 2 in La Roche-sur-Yon and wore it during the team time trial in Cholet. It was also the tenth Tour de France stage win for Bora-Hansgrohe yesterday.
The German team is taking part in the Tour de France for the tenth consecutive time.
Now they have all kind of individual stage victories: in bunch sprints, flat and uphill, with Peter Sagan (5), ITT with Maciej Bodnar in Marseille in 2017, from breakaways in medium difficulty stages with Lennard Kämna, Nils Politt and Patrick Konrad, and a mountain stage with Jai Hindley.
Tour de France stage six
13:08 , Mike Jones
115 km to go: There’s 250 metres left until the top of the Cote de Capvern-les-Bains, Neilson Powless takes the the front as they reach the peak and he claims a couple of points in the King of the Mountains battle.
Kasper Asgreen takes one point.
Tour de France stage six
13:00 , Mike Jones
118 km to go: The Cote de Capvern-les-Bains is the first of today’s climbs. It’s a 5.6km uphill category 3 with a gradient of 4.8%. Not the most difficult of the mountains today and one that the breakaway should handle without too much trouble.
Tour de France stage six
12:58 , Mike Jones
120km to go: Five riders, Neilson Powless (EF-Education EasyPost), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Oliver Naesen (AG2R-Citröen), Anthony Perez (Cofidis) and Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) have closed the gapt to the breakaway which now sits at 20 riders.
Meanwhile in the peloton Bora-Hansgrohe are at the front setting the pace. Yellow jersey holder Jai Hindley rides for this team.
Tour de France stage six
12:50 , Mike Jones
125km to go: Most of the general classification riders, including Jonas Vingegaard, haven’t left the pelaton but they’ll still be favourites for the stage win.
The first of the climbs today arrives in 10km.
Tour de France stage six
12:47 , Mike Jones
Tour de France stage six
12:44 , Mike Jones
130km to go: The breakaway is now over two minutes ahead of the pelaton with a second group of chasers just 47 seconds behind the leaders.
Here’s the list of riders out front: Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious), Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-Citröen), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Matîs Louvel (Arkéa-Samsic), Tobias Halland Johannessen and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).
Tour de France stage six
12:38 , Mike Jones
135km to go: UAE Team Emirates have managed to grab a place in that leading group with Matteo Trentin joining them when the gap was cut to eight seconds.
Also up there are among them are Mathieu van de Poel and Christopher Juul-Jensen.
Tour de France stage six
12:36 , Mike Jones
Have a watch of Wout van Aert’s blazing start. He was the main leader in getting the breakaway clear at the depart reel:
Tour de France stage six
12:35 , Mike Jones
137km to go: The pace of the pelaton starts to increase and the gap between them and the breakaway cuts to eight seconds.
Alaphilippe moves to the front of the field and puts the pedal down in an effort to get the breakaway even clearer. His efforts pay off as they hit a slight decline and the gap starts opening up once again.
Tour de France stage six
12:31 , Mike Jones
141 km to go: There are quite a few riders in the breakaway with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step) among them. I can count nine of them in the leading pack with a line of three to four stragglers behind them.
The pelaton is already 14 seconds behind and that gap is increasing.
Depart reel
12:28 , Mike Jones
And they’re off!
Wout van Aert flies straight to the front of the field and leads a breakaway of about 10 or so riders. The Jumbo-Visma is an explosive rider and he’ll be close to the front for most of this early part of the day.
Tour de France stage six
12:26 , Mike Jones
The crowds were out in Tarbes to watch the pelaton depart the city for the start of stage six. This will be an exciting day’s riding with more than a few tactics in play as they cross the mountains.
Tadej Pogacar on his Tour so far
12:22 , Mike Jones
The two-time Tour de France winner, Tadej Pogacar spoke to Eurosport about how his 2023 Tour has been developing so far. Asked where things have gone awry so far, he replied:
“Maybe small details – a little bit of everything. The shape is here but I think the next days I can be even better.
“Jonas [Vingegaard] was super strong yesterday. I think he would have made a gap anyway. We’ll see the next days if I can respond. I’m good.”
Jai Hindley leads the Tour
12:19 , Mike Jones
Jai Hindley is a Tour de France debutant and will wear the yellow jersey for the first time after his solo win at Laruns yesterday. He has an advantage of 47 seconds over defending champion Jonas Vingeagaard and 1’03’’ over Giulio Ciccone.
Former race leader Adam Yates is 1’34’’ down in fifth with double overall winner Tadej Pogacar 1’40’’ behind in sixth place.
Tour de France stage six
12:14 , Mike Jones
The riders have set off towards the depart reel with an easy and casual ride through Tarbes. They’re 7km away from where the route officially begins and should take about 10 minutes or so to get there.
Tour de France stage six
12:12 , Mike Jones
Tarbes hosts a start for the 13th time.
The last time was for stage 14 of 2019 tour. At the finish atop the Tourmalet, Thibaut Pinot won from Julian Alaphilippe and Steven Kruijswijk.
That was also the last win to date at the Tour for Pinot.
Weather outlook
12:09 , Mike Jones
At around 25 degrees celsius, it’s hot in Tarbes where the pelaton sets off for the day’s ride. Things should get cooler as the progress through the 145km route and there is a chance of rain later in the afternoon.
A risk of thunderstorms is a real possibility by the time they reach the Tourmalet.
General classification after stage five
12:06 , Mike Jones
1. Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) 22hrs 15mins 12secs
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +47secs
3. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +1min 03secs
4. Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1min 11secs
5. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 34secs
6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +1min 40secs
7. Simon Yates (Team Jayco-Alula) + 1min 40secs
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +1min 56secs
9. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 56secs
10. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +1 min 56secs
How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to his fierce rivals and loyal teammates
12:03 , Mike Jones
Mark Cavendish once gave me the look.
It was an interview in a hotel lobby in Yorkshire; he was slightly late and apologised profusely, then answered questions about the Tour de France with enthusiasm and detail.
For some reason, I thought 10 minutes of flowing conversation made me his trusted confidant, so I looked him in the eyes and asked: how much do you want to break Eddy Merckx’s Tour stage record? He shrugged it off. But what would it mean to you? He went quiet. Wouldn’t it crown your legacy?
The look was somewhere in the venn diagram of anger and disdain, and I half expected him to walk off. He stayed, but in that brief moment I felt the gentlest prod of his famous spikiness. Cavendish was once asked what he’d learned from a difficult day on the bike. “That journalists sometimes ask some stupid f***ing questions,” he replied.
How Mark Cavendish became a Tour de France legend – according to rivals and teammates
Cavendish ready for stage six
11:56 , Mike Jones
Mark Cavendish is looking forward to today’s stage but knows this isn’t one for him to excel. Cavendish is famously a sprinter and positions himself near the front when a stage sets up for a tight, racing finish.
Today’s route is the opposite. It’s all about mountains, climbing and timing your moves perfectly. Not ideal for the sprinters in the pelaton.
Jai Hindley wins Tour de France stage five to take yellow jersey
11:49 , Mike Jones
Jai Hindley won stage five of the Tour de France in Laruns to take the yellow jersey from Adam Yates and Jonas Vingegaard rode clear of rival Tadej Pogacar as an early trip to the Pyrenees ripped up the general classification.
Hindley, winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, marked himself out as a major contender with a breakaway victory but surely more important was the sight of defending champion Vingegaard leaving behind two-time winner Pogacar on the final climb to make his case as the favourite to be in yellow come Paris.
Having gone clear from the last of his fellow escapees on the final climb of the Col de Marie Blanque, Hindley soloed into Laruns to take the win by 32 seconds, with Vingegaard coming home at the back of a four-strong group that was second on the road.
Jai Hindley wins Tour de France stage five to take yellow jersey
Stage 6 map and profile
11:44 , Mike Jones
A breakdown of today’s 145km route:
First comes a small category three climb before an intermediate sprint, which may well be contested by the riders interested in the green jersey – Jasper Philipsen is in a strong position in the points classification after winning back-to-back sprints.
Then comes the Col d’Aspin (12% at 6.5%) which so often precedes the Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%), the Tour’s most visited climb which will take the peloton over 2,000m high.
A long, fast descent follows before the climb to Cauterets (16km at 5.4%), a long drag that will be draining on the legs after such a tough first week.
Stage six start time and prediction
11:40 , Mike Jones
The stage is set to begin at around 12.20pm BST and is expected to finish at around 4.20pm.
Prediction: Jonas Vingegaard should put down the hammer on the climb to Cauterets and take the stage win.
Jersey standings ahead of stage six
11:37 , Mike Jones
There has been plenty of changes in the jersey standings following the conclusion of stage five with both the yellow and polka-dot jersey changing hands.
Here’s who will wear the jersey this afternoon:
Yellow: Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe)
White: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
Green: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Polka Dot: Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroën)
Tour de France 2023 stage 6 preview: Route map and profile of 145km from Tarbes to Cauterets via the Tourmalet
11:32 , Mike Jones
The 2023 Tour de France ignited on Tuesday’s stage five as Australia’s Jai Hindley stormed into the yellow jersey and reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard dominated his main rival Tadej Pogacar. Hindley escaped in the breakaway and both Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma and Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates took too long to close the gap, allowing the Bora-Hansgrohe rider to push on alone and claim a brilliant solo win.
With it, Hindley jumped to the top of the general classification and took the yellow jersey from Adam Yates, who caught up to the struggling two-time champion and UAE team leader Pogacar, and they finished together more than a minute and a half behind Hindley and a minute down on the ominously strong Vingegaard.
Stage six goes deeper into the high Pyrenees, and the peloton will climb the iconic Col du Tourmalet en route to the first summit finish of the Tour in Cauterets.
Tour de France stage 6 preview: Iconic Tourmalet sets up yellow jersey fight