Dylan Groenewegen has won his first Tour de France stage in two years after edging out Jasper Philipsen in a big bunch finish in Dijon on stage six.
Distinctive in his nosepiece shades and Dutch champion’s jersey, the Jayco-AlUla rider netted what was his sixth Tour de France victory in total, after a chaotic, high-speed dash.
Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who won the green jersey last year and was given a masterful leadout by Mathieu van der Poel, was ultimately relegated after being judged to have deviated from his line and closing in Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
He was given 107th place – last rider in the large front group that finished at the same time as the winner.
The decision saw Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) moved to second place, with Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) third.
The 163.5km parcours took the race from Mâcon to Dijon in eastern France, and though it lacked any major climbs and was considered a nailed-on sprint finish, crosswinds made it a tense day.
At one point the race did split, with yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar finding himself isolated from his UAE Team Emirates team-mates. It came back together though, and there was ultimately no change to the top-10 on GC.
Speaking after the race, Jayco AlUla boss Matt White talked about how important the win was for the team.
“A massive chunk of our publicity is these two weeks (sic),” he said. “That’s win number 19, but I think we’d trade the other 18 in for today’s one.
“It was a very messy sprint, but the main thing is that he got there fresh, and he got open air, because he’s got a lot of speed. He’s changed his training this year, backed the volume off a little bit and really concentrated on what his biggest quality is and that is speed.”
More to follow…