Stybar wins Tour de France sixth stage, but teammate and race leader Tony Martin crashes
Germany's Tony Martin, wearing the overall leaderu00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s yellow jersey, sits on the ground after a fall during the sixth stage of Tour de France yesterday.
Le Havre (France): Zdenek Stybar won a bitter-sweet sixth stage of the Tour de France yesterday as his Etixx teammate and race leader Tony Martin crashed in the final kilometre. Martin was trying to set up another teammate Mark Cavendish for a sprint finish when he wobbled on the bike and tumbled on a steep finish, bringing down reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali.
Germany's Tony Martin, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, sits on the ground after a fall during the sixth stage of Tour de France yesterday. Pics/AFP
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Martin was left clutching his shoulder on the tarmac and the 30-year-old German needed help from his teammates to cross the line as he couldn’t hold his handlebars, putting his continued participation at the Tour in doubt.
The crash caused chaos at the front of the race and Czech Stybar pounced on the mayhem to streak clear and win the 189.5km stage from Abbeville to Le Havre. Peter Sagan won the sprint finish for second place with Germany’s John Degenkolb third.
Zdenek Stybar celebrates winning the sixth stage yesterday
For Slovak Sagan it was his third second placed finish in the race to add to a third place and continues his frustrating run of near misses stretching back 41 stages to stage seven of the 2013 Tour.
But the main drama was on the steep 850m long, 7.0 percent gradient slope that preceded the final 500m dash to the line.
Martin, despite wearing the yellow jersey, was trying to help set up Cavendish for the finish but he clipped the wheel of Bryan Coquard in front of him, wobbled and then fell into the rider to his right, with Nibali next to that and brought down in the melee.
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