Tour de France 2019: stage six – live!

85km to go: Natnael Berhane is first over Col Du Hundsruck, followed by Tim Wellens.

86km to go: Cracking maths there on my part. That’s six different groups.

87km to go: Going by the official Tour tracker, the field appears to be split into seven different groups: the breakaway, the group of GC contenders, three different groups of stragglers and Nicolas Edet.

88km to go: Spare a thought for Nicolas Edet, who is visibly ill and already 14min 30sec and 10 kilometres off the pace being set by the breakaway.

89km to go: The 14 men of the breakaway are on their way uphill again. The category two Col Du Hundsruck is next on the itinerary. It’s 748m above sea level, 5.3km in length and has a gradient of just shy of 7%. The gap to the peloton is 7min 31sec.

96km to go: Total Direct Energie rider Anthony Turgis goes wide on a turn and almost goes off the road, but manages to stay upright.

Now traditional crash as soon as I abandon my post: Warren Barguil hit the deck near the summit of Grand Ballon, but has got a bike change and is away rolling again. There’s a bit of damp on the road and this descent is technical and difficult. Not a time for risks.

109km to go: The breakaway group head over the short but steep second climb of the day, the category three Grand Ballon. De Gendt is first over, followed by Giulio Ciccone, who was King of the Mountains at the Giro. There’s a serious descent to come, so your reporter is going to hope nobody falls and take this opportunity to attend to collect a couple of bidons from the Guardian team car. Back in five!

113km to go: The peloton is about to crest the summit of Le Markstein having been led all the way up by Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Kasper Asgreen. A couple of wheels back, the riders of Team Ineos are enjoying an impromptu spot of lunch after Gianni Moscon went back to the team car to fetch a musette of energy bars and gels.

116km to go: Already in the polka dot jersey, Tim Wellens is first over Le Markstein.

Today’s favourites: Egan Bernal is the favourite to win today’s stage and is followed in the betting by Giulio Ciccone, Thibaut Pinot, Adam Yates, Alejandro Valverde, Geraint Thomas, Dylan Teuns, Dan Martin, Jakob Fugslang, Michael Woods, and Warren Barguil.

118km to go: There are two kilometres to go to the summit of Le Markstein and then it’s onwards and upwards to the Grand Ballon, another category one climb. The gap between the breakaway and the bunch is 6min 49sec.

120km to go: A motorcycle cameraman pulls up alongside a very forlorn looking Nicolas Edet. The Cofidis rider has been dropped from the main bunch and has just been receiving treatment from the medical car. He is unwell today and is apparently suffering from a stomach complaint. It’s going to be a long, long day for the poor sod.

123km to go: The gap from the breakaway to the peloton is now 7min 09sec. Deuceuninck-Quick Step rider Kasper Asgreen is leading the peloton along, as he has been since the breakaway formed.

125km to go: It’s uphill for the foreseeable future as the race tackles Le Markstein, the first category one climb of this Tour. It’s summit is 1,183m above sea level, the climb is 10.8km in length and the gradient is 5.4%.

Intermediate sprint result

1. Andrea Pasqualon: 20 points
2. Nils Politt: 17
3. André Greipel: 15
4. Nikias Arndt: 13
5. Thomas De Gendt: 11
6. Dylan Teuns: 10
7. Fabien Grellier: 9
8. Giulio Ciccone: 8
9. Natnael Berhane: 7
10. Xandro Meurisse: 6
11. Serge Pauwels: 5
12. Benoît Cosnefroy: 4
13. Tim Wellens: 3
14. Julien Bernard: 2
And at 6min 55sec:
15. Michael Matthews: 1

127km to go: Deep in conversation with Elia Viviani, Peter Sagan gets caught napping by Michael Matthews in the race for the final intermediate sprint point. He gives chase to the Australian, but is unable to catch him. The pair roll over the line, with Matthews turning to share a laugh with his rival.

128km to go: The gap is out to 6min 35sec, while Team Deceuninck-Quick Step continue to lead what passes for the charge behind them. At some point, one would expect the Skybots from Team Ineos to grab today’s stage by the scruff of the neck and squeeze tightly. Egan Bernal is many people’s idea of today’s winner.

Intermediate sprint: Andrea Pasqualon wins the intermediate sprint and is followed over the line by Nils Politt and Andre Greipel in second and third. The 11 other riders in the breakaway follow them, meaning there’s just one point left up for grabs for a peloton that is now over six minutes behind them.

133km to go: The gap between the 14-man breakaway and the peloton is out to 5min 46sec and the weather has become inclement. It’s raining, but not heavily.

Mitchelton Scott’s stage five diary: Matteo Trentin could not have asked for a better leadout from his teammates yesterday, but ultimately the Italian was unable to get his nose in front of Peter Sagan and had to settle for second place. There’s no shame in that.

139km to go: The riders of Team Ineos are lined up behind their colleagues from Quick Step at the front of the bunch.

140km to go: Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) is ther highest placed GC contender in the breakaway in 42nd at 1min 43sec. He’s currently the virtual leader of this Tour and on Eurosport, the commentary team have said he’s capable of winning today’s stage.

142km to go: The gap goes out to 4min 23sec with Deceuninck-Quick Step at the front of the main peloton.

Your breakaway: Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Serge Pauwels (CCC), Julien Bernard and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Nikias Arndt (Sunweb), Natnael Berhane (Cofidis), Thomas De Gendt and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Xandro Meurisse and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and André Greipel (Arkéa-Samsic) have 1’45’’ lead after 10km. The gap to the bunch is already 2min 44sec and rising.

152km to go: One rider after another is being spat out the front of the bunch, trying to bridge the gap to the escape party of 14. Ciccone, Meurisse, Teuns, Politt, Bernard, De Gendt, Pasqualon, Berhane, Wellens, Cosnefroy, Arndt, Pauwels, Grellier and Greipel are the men in the getaway car and the bunch seem content to let them go.

155km to go: Tim Wellens, currently in the polka dot jersey, is also in the breakaway attempt. Will they get away?

They’re racing! The start of today’s race has been semaphored and a group of six riders have attacked off the front of the bunch. They’re joined by another five or six who bridge the gap. Thomas De Gendt, it should go without saying, is among the early pace-setters. Serge Pauwels and Andre Greipel are there too.

Happy birthday! Lotto Soudal sprinter Caleb Ewan is celebrating his 25th birthday.

Out! We have our first abandonment of this year’s Tour. Team CCC’s Kiwi rider Paddy Bevan has quit the race, having felt unable to continue because of two fractured ribs he suffered in a crash on stage four. The field is down to 175 riders.

Today’s roll-out: The neutralised zone is a 10 kilometres long today and the field is over halfway through it, bunched behind the red Skoda carrying race director Christian Prudhomme. They’re going at a fair old lick, a state of affairs that would suggest there’ll be a number of riders anxious to attack from the gun. Today’s intermediate sprint is at Linthal, around 30 kilometres into today’s stage, 15 kilometres from the first classified climb of the day, the category one Le Markstein.

La Planche des Belles Filles: Legend has it that during the Thirty Years War (1618 to 1648), young women from Plancer-les-Mines fled into these mountains to escape Swedish mercenaries, who they feared might rape and murder them. Trapped on the mountain top where today’s stage concludes, they opted to take their own lives by jumping from the summit into the lake below, rather than surrender. One of the soldiers promptly engraved an epitaph for “the beautiful girls” into a wooden board and left it as a memorial. Hence the name of today’s brutal final climb: La Planche des Belles Filles (The Board of the Beautiful Girls).

The Move: Lance Armstrong is not a Eurosport presenter, but he is also hosting a daily pod in which he, his former teammate George Hincapie and their pal JD give their own piping hot takes on the latest action. GO straight to the six-minute mark to skip past the adverts.

The Breakaway: Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui is hosting a daily podcast in which she and assorted guests pick over the bones of the day’s action and looks ahead to the following day’s stage. You can catch yesterday’s offering below.

Stage five report: Jeremy Whittle was in Colmar to see Peter Sagan secure the 12th Tour de France stage win of his career, while Julian Alaphilippe stayed in the yellow jersey.

From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage guide: Short and intense over four brutal climbs culminating with the ascent where Chris Froome won in 2012. The main action will come in the final 20km over the very narrow and steep Col des Chevrères, which hits 18%, and the finish climb which goes to 20%. It’s a typical first key day at the Tour: the time gaps should be a bit less than in other years as we are still in the opening week but the chances are only 10 or a dozen riders will be in with a shout after this one. Local boy Thibaut Pinot might be the best bet to win the stage and steal an early march.