Stage 6 is the first of the two hilly stages. 184k of Belgian bergs. The race is dominated by a sequence of 4 sharp climbs which are tackled 5 times with the finish on the 5th ascent of the final climb in the sequence, the Mur de Hoy (Cat 2, 1.4k at 9.5%). The prior 3 climbs are the Côte d’Ereffe (Cat 4, 2.1k at 5.4%), the Côte de Thier-Marchin (Cat 4, 1.2k at 5.5%) and the Montagne Corroy (cat 3, 1.5k at 7%). Sometimes the climbs have KOM points sometimes they don’t.
The puncheurs are the stage favorites, most of them have lost significant time but Schmid and Van Dijke will hope to use the punchy climbs to put a little time into race leader Wirtgen.
Heidemann is the first attacker and he is still just about on his own as takes out the first KOM points – at the first ascent of the Côte de Thier-Marchin. Just behind him Gregoire and Serrano take 2nd and 3rd.
By the top of the next climb Herrera has joined the front while Heidemann has dropped back a little. The points go to Herrera, Gregoire and Serrano in that order.
Eventually 12 riders come together to form the break and with 160k to go they have 4’04. The 12 are: Serrano Meiler Gregoire Herrera Vacek Gamper Potocki Suter Heidemann Matsangos Tolhoek Bonnamour
In the second set of climbs only the Côte d’Ereffe carries KOM points. Bonnamour takes those ahead of Potocki and Tolhoek. Their lead is 5’06 with 138k to go.
110k to go. Polar think today is a day for McCarthy as they have been helping EA with the chase.
The third set of climbs feature points on the Côte d’Ereffe again, Potocki gets them ahead of Herrera and Tolhoek. Herrera now tied with Siric for the virtual lead.
But the third set also feature points on the Mur de Hoy and that is Cat 2. Bonnamour wins it ahead of Herrera and Potocki. The Indosat rider now has sole possession of the virtual KOM 2 points ahead of Bonnamour and 3 points ahead of Potocki. Three of the four climbs award points the next time around so the jersey is still in play. The peloton is 3’37 down and has been showing signs of a splitting.
The break does not contest the lone sprint point on the parcours. Meanwhile Gamper was dropped on the last climb and looks to be done for the day. Also, in the peloton Carlsberg have once again all dropped back to ride with Kragh Andersen and this time Per is with them. He was only 31st on the GC at the start of the day but any hope of improving that is gone. Menten, 20th on GC, also with them.
The first KOM points in the 4th set are at the Côte de Thier-Marchin, Bonnamour takes them ahead of Potocki and Vacek. Bonnamour now the virtual leader. The 167-rider peloton is 3’24 down with 52k to ride.
At the Montagne Corroy Herrera strikes back and retakes the virtual lead, taking the points ahead of Potocki and Suter.
The see-saw battle continues and Bonnamour takes the points at the Mur de Hoy, a bike length up on Herrera. That means they are tied for the KOM lead. The only remaining points are at the Côte de Thier-Marchin in the fifth set, that is still about 30k away so they may not make it. Although the peloton is still 4 minutes down as they have been easing off on the climbs.
Suter and Heidemann are dropped on the climb and begin to fade back to the peloton.
30k to go for the peloton and Tinkoff (Foliforov), Cedevita (Poljanec), and Fastned (Vliegen) have joined Polar (Barthe) in the chase but the gap is still 3’34. Peloton down to 114 riders. Top 20 GC riders in addition to Menten dropped are Philipsen (19th), Spengler (18th) and Kamyshev (12th)
19k to go, puncheurs driving the pace themselves now that is Vansevenant, Skujins, McCarthy and Kinoshita on the front. Gap still 2’30. Peloton down to 73 with Laporte (13th) dropped from the GC top twenty.
14k to go and the peloton is down to 27 riders with Buchmann on the front. Leaders are still 2’10 ahead. 14th to 17th on GC ( Fedorov, Anderberg, Stewart and Delco) all dropped plus 9th placed Tiller.
Herrera easily wins the final climb of the Côte de Thier-Marchin. He will wear the jersey tomorrow. Bonnamour score 0 as he comes across 4th. With a lead of over 2 minutes and just 12k to ride they can think about the stage win now, particularly since the peloton seems to be hesitating.
With the lull Van Dijke attacks as the leader’s group nears the top of the Côte de Thier-Marchin. Ahead Herrera, Bonnamour, Meiler and Tolhoek have got a gap on the others.
Wirtgen, Kung, and Siric neutralize Van Dijke. Up front the break is back together.
As soon as the break reforms a new attack is launched with Meiler, Tolhoek and Potocki.
As they hit the bottom of the Montagne Corroy for the last time Matsangos has almost closed the gap to the front two, with Meiler having dropped back to the chasers previously.
Potocki leads them over the top as a group of 8, Gregoire unable to stay with them. They have only 3.7k to go about half of which is the Mur de Hoy, with a gap of 2’35 the stage winner will come from this group. None of the breakaway are closer than 8 minutes on the GC so that isn’t in play.
Potocki isn’t going to wait for the Mur, he attacks the break on the downhill. In the Yellow Jersey group McCarthy and Kung are pushing the pace.
Over the Montagne Corroy McCarthy drags a group of 5 clear. Also with him are Kung, Wirtgen, Schmid and Herregodts. They have 27 seconds.
Van Dijke and Pidcock try to close the gap on the descent. 14 riders left with them, everybody not mentioned form the GC top 20 is in the Van Dijke or McCarthy group. Up front Potock has started the Mur de Hoy, he has 900 meters to climb and 9 seconds on Herrera, Bonnamour and Tolhoek who have drawn away from the rest of the break.
500 meters for Potocki, that is a 17 second gap. The other 7 have come back together. Behind the 5 attackers have 8 seconds on the next 6 riders with the group splitting on the descent.
300 meters for Potocki as Herrera puts in a dig behind. The yellow jersey group looks to be reforming; they are a few hundred meters from the bottom of the Mur de Hoy.
Herrera almost up to Potocki. The rest seem to be riding for 3rd, Vacek has been dropped by those in the picture.
Herrera sweeps by Potocki to take the stage. What a day for the Indosat rider as he adds the stage win to his KOM jersey. Bonnamour looks set to take 3rd.
The chase group briefly reformed but immediately Wirtgen, Kung, Van Dijke, Schmid and Herregodts pressed on and they hit the Mur de Hoy with a lead of 14 seconds over a group of 8 which includes Siric (11th on GC) and Vermeersch (6th). Another group of 4 is 12 seconds further back, that latter group includes Kiriakidis (10th), Van Baarle (3rd), and Pedersen (5th)
A late dash from Tolhoek almost nets him 3rd but he settles for 4th with Matsangos 5th and then Serrano and Meiler.
The Wirtgen group are tightly packed as they hit the steepest part of the Mur. They have opened their lead on the chasers up to 23 seconds. The Van Baarle group has tagged on to the back of the rest but Kiriakidis didn’t make it across.
Kung is dropped as Schmid comes by Wirtgen, he wishes this was for the stage win. Vacek has taken 8th, Gregoire has been caught.
Schmid leads the Yellow jersey group home, Van Dijke dashing across to him probably eliminates any time gap. Wirtgen is 11th and Herregodts 12th. A nicely managed ride by the Evonik leader. Kung takes 14th behind Aleotti. Further down the hill Pedersen and Van Baarle are really struggling and will be losing a decent amount of time.
Wirtgen easily holds onto the leader’s jersey with Herregodts still in second, 28 seconds down. Kung up to third, Van Dijke 4th and Schmid 5th. Van Dijke expands his lead in the young rider competition, Lapeira now 2nd. EA expand their lead in the team’s jersey, they are 4 minutes up on ELCO. Farantakis still leads the points and barring something unexpected tomorrow should be safe in that jersey.
Tour of Northern Europe 
