Michael Storer has achieved the very best Australian outcome thus far at this yr’s Tour de France, ending third in stage six.
Eire’s Ben Healy (EF Schooling-EasyPost) received the 201.5-kilometre trek from Bayeux to Vire Normandie after an extended solo breakaway.
Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) wrestled again the general chief’s yellow jersey from reigning champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Crew Emirates).
Healy attacked from an eight-man breakaway, which included van der Poel, with 42km remaining and pulled away to achieve the end line nicely forward of second-placed American Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Storer (Tudor Professional Biking Crew).
“I spent a bit an excessive amount of time attempting to get into the break, however I feel that is simply the best way I do it,” Healy mentioned.
“As soon as I used to be in there we actually needed to work for that hole and it was simply on the pedals all day and I knew I wanted to get away from the group and picked my second.”
Van der Poel, who misplaced the general result in Pogačar after the person time trial in stage 5, was unable to maintain tempo with the breakaway.
However he moved again to the highest of the overall classification with a spot of 1 second over Slovenia’s Pogačar.
Van der Poel, who first took the yellow jersey after successful stage two, started the day 1:28 behind Pogačar.
The breakaway group had managed to place greater than 4 minutes between themselves and the peloton, with Pogačar’s teammates showing unconcerned about shedding the yellow jersey at this early stage of the race.
After Healy broke free and the others gave chase, van der Poel misplaced his momentum and — on a day with six categorised climbs and an uphill end — he regarded a drained determine as he dragged himself to the road in eighth place.
Pogačar ended up crossing the end subsequent and the three-time champion might be more than pleased to sit down only one second behind van der Poel.
Jack Haig (Crew Bahrain Victorious) and Ben O’Connor (Crew Jayco AlUla) are the best-placed Australians within the normal classifications in twentieth and twenty first respectively.
Haig is 5:09 off the tempo, with O’Connor (5:30) additional again.
Reuters/ABC
