Dylan Groenewegen joins the party at 2024 Tour de France with narrow sprint win ahead of Jasper Philipsen on stage 6

Following Biniam Girmay and Mark Cavendish, Dylan Groenewegen has now joined the sprint party at the 2024 Tour de France, taking victory on stage 6 in a frantic finale.

After a relatively calm opening to the day, the polka dot jersey wearing Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility emerged at the front at the top of the first categorised climb of the day, taking the one point on offer. Cofidis' Axel Zingle joined the Norwegian up ahead and following the climb, the duo carried on their attack, forming a breakaway.

This attack didn't last too however, and soon after the dup sat up completely and waited for the peloton. At the intermediate sprint, Jasper Philipsen emerged from the bunch to take maximum points ahead of the current Green Jersey holder, Biniam Girmay and the battered, bruised and bandaged Mads Pedersen.

As the wind picked up, Team Visma | Lease a Bike took to the front with just over 80km to go, setting a fierce pace and causing splits behind them. Once people realised what exactly was happening however, even the likes of Tadej Pogacar himself were seen rolling through on the front of the lead group. Alongside Pogacar in the lead group however, there was a notable lack of UAE Team Emirates riders, with the Maillot Jaune all alone at the front.

Although there was real panic for a moment, as the wind settled things did eventually come back together with 70km to go, with UAE Team Emirates able to breathe a sigh of relief. Although the racing and the wind was much calmer afterwards, the stress and the desire to stay at the front was still present for many teams. With just over 40km to go, this reached a crescendo as a crash occurred in the peloton with Abrahamsen among the riders to hit the deck.

With the riders managing to avoid any further crashes, a full peloton entered the final 10km at somewhere close to top speed. At 7km to go however, handful of EF Education-EasyPost riders were caught up in a crash, ending Marijn van den Berg's hopes of a sprint win. Nevertheless, all the GC man managed to get safely through the 4km to go marker.

As the sprint trains then fully took control at the front, it was Uno-X Mobility who held the lead through the Flamme Rouge. With 500m to go however, Alpecin-Deceuninck took control. In the sprint though, the Dutch national champion Dylan Groenewegen powered to the victory ahead of Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay.

Results powered by FirstCycling.com

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