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- Alexej Lutsenko wins a stage in the Tour de France for the first time.
- The Kazakh competes the last 17 km alone.
- Adam Yates defends the “Maillot Jaune”.
In 2015 Alexej Lutsenko won a stage of the Tour de Suisse in Bern. In 2017, the Kazakh celebrated a successful day at the Vuelta. On Thursday, 4 days before his 28th birthday, the Astana professional was better: in the sixth stage of the Tour de France, Lutsenko was the strongest rider on the field and after 191 km he won the mountain of Mont Aigoual.
A group of eight characterizes the 150 km race
Lutsenko had belonged to a group of eight who had already fled for the first few kilometers of the day. At times, the outliers had a lead of more than 6 minutes on the field. On the climb to Col de la Lusette, the leading group slowly crumbled, before Lutsenko took the lead only 17km from the finish and could no longer be placed.
Behind Lutsenko, the Spanish Jesús Herrada (+ 0:55), the Belgian Greg van Avermaet (+ 2:15) and the American Neilson Powless (+ 2:17) came from second to fourth. They were all from the original escape group. left free. Half a minute after Powless, a small field with all the contenders for the overall victory at Mont Aigoual arrived.
Yates defends the yellow
There were no changes to the top of the overall ranking. Britain’s Adam Yates, who won the leader’s jersey the day before after a time penalty against Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, is still in the lead.
Yates remains 3 seconds ahead of Slovenian Primoz Roglic and 7 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar, another Slovenian rider.
So it goes
The sprinters could get their money’s worth back on Friday. The program includes 168 km from Millau to Lavaur. The last almost 100 km are almost exclusively on a gentle or flat incline.
