After a long solo breakaway on Thursday, Irish rider Ben Healy won a hilly sixth stage of the Tour de France and Mathieu van der Poel took the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogačar by one second.

A rolling 197km stage from Saint Malo to the Mûr-de-Bretagne awaits the peloton with a slender margin at the top of the GC standings

Just 24 hours later, the 26-year-old was not present on the podium for any of those three jerseys, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) back in the race lead, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in green, and Pogačar's team-mate Tim Wellens in the polka dots.

Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, was expected to win the stage in the absence of time trial specialists — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger, who both crashed and exited the race on the first day of the Tour last week.

Ultimately it came down to a single second, with Pogačar losing the lead to Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel despite the best efforts of Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates. These unusual tactics certainly drew the ire of a visibly frustrated Pogačar, with the Slovenian remarking after the stage finish:

A three-week Grand Tour will always contain natural ebbs and flows, and, for much of Monday’s stage between Valenciennes and Dunkirk, it looked as if the peloton had declared an unofficial rest day, with the riders happy to cruise back towards the coast after a weekend of wind, rain and intensity.

The first stage of the Tour de France is completed! The 184 riders started in Lille, where the first leader's jersey was awarded. In three weeks, we will know who will take home the yellow jersey, as well as the green,