Greipel Wins Stage 6

I love a good “making of” video and this is no exception, as we see how that Santa Cruz film featuring Steve Peat riding the Highlands was created:

Making of the Santa Cruz Solo video from santa cruz bikes on Vimeo.

Inevitably there’s more Tour action as a pretty flat stage into Montpellier made everyone think of a bunch sprint, and the usual suspects start to lick their lips.

The race started with a doomed lone break from Malé, which left everyone wondering why he did it and me debating whether teams have a meeting to decide to get their sponsors on telly on a particular day, and never mind the chances of the attack succeeding.

As everyone expected, the race quickly came back together and stayed that way all the way to the end, with only a few crashes (including one which put Cavendish on the tarmac and left him chasing hard to get back to the front) breaking up the relentless charge. With the pace set by BMC and OPQS riders started to fall away from the back of the bunch at around 6km to go.

Argos Shimano had a go at spoiling the party and allowing Kittel to actually sprint against some other fast men, as opposed to his fairly uncontested win in stage 1, as they mixed in with the teams of Cav, Sagan and Greipel. Greipel’s Lotto-Belisol team lead the sprint out and managed to deliver the German to the line as Cav, Kittel and Sagan snapped at his heels.

The race is definitely hotting up into the weekend. There's a new yellow jersey holder as Daryl Impey becomes the first African ever to wear it. Look out for more from Monday.

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