Having finished yesterday’s fifth stage with just five riders, today the team started with another two less after sickness saw Tobias Lund Andresen and Nils Eekhoff as non-starters. So with just three riders rolling out from Sisteron the team were up for getting stuck in. After an active start to the stage, a powerful breakaway of ten riders finally went clear featuring Gijs Leemreize. The group’s gap was never allowed to stretch too far out and they were eventually brought back with just under 60 kilometres to race.
An attacking finale eventually saw three riders stay clear to fight out the stage win ahead of a group of GC contenders behind. Leemreize held on well to finish just over four minutes down on the stage winner after his efforts at the front of the race.
After the stage finish he commented: “The plan was to get in the break today but because so many teams were keen to do the same it ended up being a long battle. On the first climb after more than 60 kilometres I got away with five others and then four more crossed to make a good group of 10. Unfortunately, we were not given much space by the peloton and we were caught again on the penultimate climb by the first half of the bunch.”