Subtract the cobbles, add the crosswinds, keep the wetness, and we get stage 6 through the flat and flowery northern French countryside from Arras to Reims. Apparently Kittel just wasn’t feeling his sprint-finish best after his wipe out yesterday. And Sagan likely wasn’t feeling 100% either following his own tumble today, though as usual he made it back among the top finishers. Rather, Andre Greipel sure felt it, as this became the German powerhouse’s day in the sun, so to speak.
As the sprinters raced to the finish line of today’s primarily flat stage, my own thoughts sped along with them. Would this finally be Peter Sagan’s day, giving him a well-deserved first Tour win of the year? Or rather, would “The Missile” take back-to-back stage victories and up his magic number to 25? As usual, they got to the front of the peloton in those key final moments today, after both having to do some unusual– for them at least– catching-up. Bike trouble delayed Sagan momentarily, while Cavendish picked himself up from a crash. From there– impressive as always– it was all about teamwork and rolling mechanics to put them back in position.
Talk about thinking fast. It turns out my speeding thoughts couldn’t keep up, because I was wrong on both questions. The Missile had to settle for the number four spot today, while the 23-year-old Slovakian saw his THIRD second-place finish of the year thus far. After all these “seconds”, I’m really looking forward to a stage win for Sagan. For now I’m glad he holds onto the sprinter’s green jersey.
In any case, another day in France is done, now with four more rider losses unfortunately. Today’s accolades for stage 6 go to– in addition to the impressive teamwork of Sagan’s Cannondale and the valiant yet unsuccessful effort of Nacer Bouhanni– the big winner du jour of course, the always-powerful Andre Greipel.
It’s Greipel’s Day!
Ryan R. Sanderson 