Tour de France stage 6 in photos

Many would have expected to see a complacent peloton in today’s stage 6 after yesterday’s brutal stage, but after struggling to make an impression in the early sprint stages, Andre Greipel has come out of hiding with a win on the flat, windswept sixth stage from Arras to Reims.

Crosswinds threatened to tear the race apart inside the final 70km, but the efforts of Omega Pharma-QuickStep at the front of the field never amounted to much. When the last of the breakaway riders was caught with about 11km to go, crosswinds split the peloton, with the second group finishing nearly a minute down. None of the major GC contenders lost time on their overall position.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) put in a hard attack in the final kilometre but there was no hesitation from the sprinters teams to quickly reel him back a couple hundred meters later. Andre Greipel sprinted to the front and was never passed. Three-time stage winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) ~~had a puncture in the closing kilometres~~ was caught out by the crosswinds* and wasn’t able to return to the front in time to contest the sprint.
Vincenzo Nibali finished safely in the bunch and will wear yellow again tomorrow.

Enjoy the photos from stage 6 courtesy of BrakeThrough Media (follow on Instagram and Twitter) and Cor Vos.

: The day’s long breakaway featured four riders — Tom Leezer (Belkin), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Jerome Pineau (IAM) and Arnaud Gerard (Bretagne-Seche) — with the quartet gaining a maximum of roughly 4:30 on the peloton.

: Geraint Thomas (Sky) touches down wasn’t seriously injured, however Sky’s Xabier Zandio would not finish the race due to injuries. On the right is Lotto-Belisol’s Marcel Seiberg who crashed heavily in the stage but managed to finish.

: Three-time stage winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) was caught out in the crosswinds in the closing kilometres and wasn’t able to return to the front in time to contest the sprint.

: The Podium Hostesses of 2014

* Initial reports suggested Kittel had suffered a puncture. We now know that’s not true.

http://www.littlepeople.id.au Chris Little

Lotto look like they have old Everready batteries on their heads.
- Cletus
  
  Man those things were rubbish. Remember the blue ones that tight arses would buy, sh*thouse
Alex

Kittel didn’t puncture. He got caught in the cross winds and admitted it in the post race interview.
- Michele
  
  Yeah, I heard Kittel tell Rendall the same. Was nice to hear him say that they can learn from their mistakes in how they raced this stage. He also said, having a ‘shocker’ like they did makes him appreciate the wins he gets even more; because they don’t just happen by chance.
Andy Logan

Loving the Gorilla’s celebration. geez Sieberg looks in a world of pain as well. Great photo’s once again.
Jaxxstatic

What about those podium shoes?! Is it even possible to buy those?
- ed
  
  yeah cool - looks like they are faux bike shoes without cleats/rigid base to wear on the podium and give the impression you are still wearing your cleats - i guess made to keep the sponsors product still in the spotlight
OverIt

Greipel’s legs!! Damn i need to get a pair of those somehow!!
timmy

Did you notice the “Froome” crossed out on the road? At least the bitumen art is up to date and topical.
BenW

Wade - can we get some sort of profile or interview with Cor Vos please? He takes some outstanding images and I’d love to know how he manages it. Follow him for a stage or something please :)
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Cor Vos is actually an agency. This means that multiple photographers contribute to their photo library. There is also something called “pool photographers” who are called upon by the TdF organiser (ASO) who take turns supplying their images and then distribute to many of the agencies. Sometimes is could be Greame Watson, Tim de Waele, or someone at Cor Vos. This is because they can only allow a limited number of photographers on certain parts of the course, therefore they need to share. This is why you’ll see many of the same photos floating around many websites (photographer credit might be different though - often we don’t know who exactly took the photo!).
  
  We have Jim and Iri from Brakethrough Media providing us many of their images in these galleries too (you can tell them by their watermark). Here’s a photo of them: http://d4nuk0dd6nrma.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ferrytostart.jpg
  
  It’s easy to take these amazing images from each stage for granted, but they incredibly complicated for the photographers to capture. A plan needs to be made each night, course access is difficult (especially with the Gendarmeries always restricting you), and timing the arrival of the peloton and making it to the finish line in time. Often there’s only one or two stops possible along the course for photographs. The photographers need to be clever about how they bring back multiple photos (especially when they have multiple clients to appease like Jim and Iri do).
  - winky
    
    http://pedalmag.com/emotions-the-ultimate-photo-book-by-cor-vos/
    
    This article would have you believe that Cor Vos is a person, too. That’s not to say he hasn’t lent his name to the agency of the same name. If he is a real person, presumably, he owns the Cor Vos photgraphic agency. The quality of the photgraphs under the Cor Vos name is outstanding either way.
    - BenW
      
      Yeah I read that and that’s why I assumed it was a single man! I had noticed the date from 2008 and thought it would be lovely to have something more up-to-date, because you’re right about the quality of the photographs. Never short of outstanding.
      - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
        
        Cor Vos is a real person’s name who started out as a photographer. Like many agencies he branched out and began getting more photographers on board and contracting the jobs out. For one person to get all these photographs would be impossible!
  - BenW
    
    Thanks for the response Wade! Both Cor Vos and the Brakethrough are offering some excellent images. I do have another query though - what’s the largest image size you’re allowed to put up from Cor Vos in particular? I expect I’m not alone in wondering if you could stick some bigger versions of the English stage photos up - especially from here in my backyard in Essex (the Finchingfield ones in particular). I just want them as a desktop wallpaper! haha
    - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
      
      Unfortunately we’re already pushing the limits in how large we can publish these photos!

Tour de France stage 6 in photos

by Wade Wallace