Despite constant tension and a few moments of bustle, stage 6 of Tour de France 2024 did indeed end with a bunch sprint in Dijon. Dylan Groenewegen got the better of his rivals, while Clément Russo got in the mix to take seventeenth place. His teammates reached the finish without any issue, and Stefan Küng already had tomorrow’s individual time trial in mind.
From Mâcon to Dijon, the sprinters had yet another clear opportunity this Thursday on stage 6 of the Tour. On a relatively short course of 163 kilometers, only one thing could possibly foil their plans. “The day’s difficulty was the wind,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “All the leaders’ teams stayed in the front all day. It got nervous and some splits happened when passing Beaune, but apart from that, it was a pretty classic scenario.” Due to the prevailing tension, no proper breakaway took off, and although the peloton broke up 80 kilometres from the goal, everything eventually got back together ten kilometres further up the road. Slowly but surely, the anticipated bunch sprint got organized. In a high-tension final, Clément Russo tried to sneak in to get a result on the line. He ultimately took seventeenth place, some bike lengths behind the winner Dylan Groenewegen.
“I’ll focus on my ride”, Stefan Küng
An important weekend is now looming, with the dirty roads stage on Sunday, and the individual time trial on Friday. “We are expecting a good time trial from Stefan, the best one possible,” said Benoît. “It will be a great challenge, the competition is tough, but he did a recon of the course, and we are going there to win.” “Although the last few days have been quiet, there is still a little fatigue in the legs,” said the Swiss rider. “It’s a very nice time trial, which includes a little bit of everything: flat parts, climbing ones and technical portions. My main opponents will be the GC guys: Evenepoel, Pogacar, Vingegaard and others. I’ll focus on my ride, I’ll try to achieve the best performance possible, and we’ll see where it takes me. I will give my best, the rest does not depend on me.” To be precise, 25.3 kilometers will have to be covered between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin.
No comment