Andre Greipel came out in front of a pack of sprinters to capture the sixth stage of the Tour de France. He barely held off Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish in the sprint finish to win the stage, while Daryl Impey finished 14th to take the yellow jersey from teammate Simon Gerrans. The South African is the first African to ever wear the yellow jersey.
Tour de France 2013 results, Stage 6: Andre Greipel claims victory
Andre Greipel won Stage 6, while Daryl Impey became the first African to ever lead the Tour de France.
Doug Pensinger
The peloton rode together for most of the stage. Luis Mate tried to break away early on, but he was brought back and left the riders with a furious sprint finish at the end in Montpellier.
Cavendish won a sprint finish the last time Montpellier hosted a stage finish in 2011, but he didn’t have much energy left at the end of this stage. An early crash forced him to work his way back to the peloton for the rest of the stage by himself, an exhausting ride that left him unable to keep up with Greipel, Sagan and Kittel in the sprint.
Impey leads the tour by three seconds over Edvald Boasson Hagen. Impey’s teammates, Gerrans and Michael Albasini, are in third place, five seconds off the pace, while Michal Kwiatkowski rounds out the top five, six seconds back.
Here are the top 10 finishers on Thursday (full results here):
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1. | Andre Greipel | Lotto-Belisol | 03h 59' 02'' | |
| 2. | Peter Sagan | Cannondale | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 3. | Marcel Kittel | Team Argos-Shimano | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 4. | Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 5. | Juan José Lobato Del Valle | Euskaltel - Euskadi | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 6. | Alexander Kristoff | Katusha Team | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 7. | José Joaquin Rojas | Movistar Team | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 8. | Danny Van Poppel | Vacansoleil-DCM | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 9. | Roberto Ferrari | Lampre - Merida | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
| 10. | Samuel Dumoulin | AG2R La Mondiale | 03h 59' 02'' | + 00' 00'' |
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