Mont Aigoual. Alexei Lutsenko won the 6th stage of the Tour de France. On Thursday, the 27-year-old Kazakh champion initially spent the 191 kilometers from Le Teil up to Mont Aigoual in an eight-person leading group that formed immediately after the start. For the first time this year, an escape group from the favorites field was granted a lead of sometimes more than six minutes. That was enough for Lutsenko, who was able to set himself apart from his seven colleagues on the steep and narrow final climb. At the finish he was 55 seconds ahead of the Spaniard Jesus Herrada.
As they had done two days before, the favorites for the overall victory refrained from attacking each other on the second mountain finish. Up until the stages in the Pyrenees at the weekend, it was all about not wasting time. And so last year’s fourth Emanuel Buchmann from Ravensburg had no problems this time to keep up with his worst opponents. The yellow jersey was defended by the Briton Adam Yates, who had benefited the day before from a 20-second time penalty for Julian Alaphilippe, who had been overall leader until then. The Frenchman had illegally accepted food too close to the goal. Ok
