The start ramp ready, the highly anticipated TTT got under way.

Svein Tuft.

Down to just 6 riders after the first week, Orica's original goal of winning the stage was thrown out the window before they'd even taken to the start ramp.

Bretagne Séché have received extra support from the fans while the Tour has been in Brittany.

Filippo Pozzato and Costa of Lampre Merida.

FDJ.

A deep breath from Yohan Gène of Europcar.

Bora.

A wheel change literally at the last minute.

IAM.

Game faces on for Edvald Boasson Hagen, Tyler Farrar, and Louis Meintjes of MTN Qhubeka.

Bike checks and stretches for Lotto Jumbo.

Kruijswijk on the ramp while his teammates sit and wait.

Trek's smallest rider, Colombian climber Julian Arredondo, between two of the team's tallest.

Astana.

Haas of Cannondale Garmin.

Dan Martin.

Ramunas Navardauskas.

Before every stage of every race, Andrew Talansky can be seen checking his equipment.

Cofidis.

Katusha.

Herrada, Quintana, and Imanol Erviti of Movistar.

Giant Alpecin watches the teams already on course on the big screen.

Roy Curvers and Simon Geschke.

Warren Barguil lies second in the best young rider category and wore the jersey instead of Sagan, who is in the green jersey.

AG2R.

Mark Cavendish and Kwiatkowski of Etixx Quick Step.

Tinkoff Saxo.

Contador, Rafal Majka, and Sagan.

Stage favorites and TTT world champions BMC. Dennis, Tejay Van Garderen, Danillo Wyss, and Daniel Oss check out the competition on the big screen.

Chris Froome and Richie Porte of Sky.

Movistar stopped the clock at 32'19″ and moved into the hot seat. A nervous Quintana had to wait for rivals Tinkoff, BMC, and Sky to come in.

On the road, Tinkoff set a new best time at the first checkpoint at 10k into the 28k course. This wasn't necessarily cause for alarm to Movistar. Their 10k time had been only the 4th fastest, 6″ slower than Tinkoff's new time, though they managed to hang on while IAM and Astana had faded. Minutes later, however, BMC came flying through the checkpoint and took a further 7″ off of Tinkoff's time. When Sky, the final team on the road, passed the checkpoint on the same time as BMC, Quintana grimaced.

The lumpy course wasn't technical but it was demanding. At the 20.5k checkpoint, Tinkoff had fallen off the pace and were no longer a threat. BMC had slowed too, but they maintained their advantage over Movistar by 3″. Sky pulled ahead and were 1″ ahead of BMC. The top 3 teams were within just 4″ of each other. The nail biter TTT would come down to the final kilometers and who could complete the 2k uphill finish the fastest.

Their faces portraits of agony, BMC rounded the last corner and finished with a time of 32'15″, knocking Quintana and Movistar out of first place by 4″. It was too early for the American team to celebrate as Sky was storming the course, taking a massive 5″ off of BMC with just 2k to go.

The seconds ticked by as the maillot jaune and his surviving teammates gave everything they had left on the climb. Watching the clock and calculating the remaining meters, my mind kept jumping from “Sky's going to catch BMC!” to “BMC will pull it off!” It was tight and the 2 teams were closely matched. When the fifth Sky rider crossed the line, it was just a fraction of a second slower than BMC. Van Garderen and BMC had taken the stage win! Sky would keep the yellow jersey, with both Froome and Van Garderen taking time on their GC rivals.

As for Monday, the peloton will be thrilled to hear just 2 words: rest day.

In the morning before the TTT began, each of the 22 teams went out for a final recon ride of the 28k course from Vannes to Plumelec.

Alexander Kristoff.

Steven Kruijswijk and Wilco Kelderman.

A good morning wave from TT specialist Svein Tuft.

Trek.

Nathan Haas awaits his teammates.

Mark Renshaw.

Receiving directions from Michal Kwiatkowski.

Talking with the DS in the team car.

FDJ.

Winner Anacona.

Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana, and Jose Herrada.

Quintana gives instructions.

Rohan Dennis.

 

Manual Quinziato and Sami Sanchez.

Wout Poels.

Geraint Thomas.

Merhawi Kudus and Daniel Teklehaimanot.

As the team prepared for the TTT, team owner and Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkoff rode behind them wearing Peter Sagan’s Slovakian champion’s kit even though he has been publicly critical of Sagan’s string of second and third place finishes this season.

Alberto Contador.

Dani Navarro and Luis Angel Mate.

Bora.

While it's been another fabulous day at the Tour, it's also been a long one, so dear readers, I hope you'll forgive me if this one is a little short on text!

Tyler Farrar and Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg.

Rafael Valls.

Romian Sicard.

MTN Qhubeka receive their prize for being the best team on yesterday's stage.

The media surround Nibali.

Cavendish tells speaker Marc Chavet he is not trying to break Eddy Merckx's record for the most number of wins at the Tour. Rather, he is racing against the riders of today, not the history books.

Michal Kwiatkowski talks with the press.

John Degenkolb, Paul Voss and Leopoldo König relax before the day's work begins.

Riders on their way to the start.

When the race was off, so was I. A fried who lives nearby had borrowed a friend's motorcycle so we whipped past the slow moving traffic and hit the road to the Mûr de Bretagne. Roadblocks prevented us from getting to the Mûr itself, but that was no problem as it was probably bursting with people by this point. We ended up just before the 10k to go banner.

The road approaching us was dead straight and downhill before kicking up to the 10k banner, so we had a superb view of the run in.

Lars Bak and Michal Golas were in the lead but only by a handful of seconds.

Bartosz Huzarski was about to be caught by the peloton at any moment.

Astan driving hard.

The speed and force of a compact and fast peloton never fails to surprise me.

Several riders were dropped.

When the last rider had gone by, we dashed ahead to watch the final kilometers play out on someone's TV.

Unlike the Mûr de Huy, the Mûr de Bretagne is mostly dead straight, making it psychologically harder to plod on with virtually no end in sight. The main players were barreling up the climb when Alexis Vuillermoz managed to attack and get away. Dan Martin finished 5″ back in second place on a stage he had high aspirations for.

The last stage before the first rest day is the team time trial. BMC may be the team to beat. The reigning world TTT champions have Rohan Dennis, former holder of the world hour record and winner of the opening TT last weekend in Utrecht, and 4 of the 6 members of the squad that won the gold medal in Ponferrada last September are at the Tour. They presently have 2 riders in the top 10 and Tejay Van Garderen has been riding a quiet but remarkably consistent Tour so far.

Movistar will be another one to watch. Dowsett, Castroviejo, and Malori are the TT engines of the Spanish outfit.

Etixx Quick Step suffered a blow in losing Tony Martin, which means that Kwiatkowski and Vermote are the only riders who helped the Belgian team win the TTT bronze medal.

A week ago, Orica GreenEdge would certainly have been considered contenders but now that they are without Gerrans, Impey, and Albasini, and Matthews is in rough shake, that places a tremendous burden on the likes of Svein Tuft and Luke Durbridge.

Tinkoff, Astana, and Sky are likely to ride well, all looking to grab a few seconds here and there for their team leaders.

Sagan and Van Garderen are just 11″ and 13″, respectively, off of the maillot jaune. If there are big splits tomorrow, the leader's jersey could possibly change hands.

Today's 34 autographs came from:

2. Lars Boom

6. Tanel Kangert

8. Rein Taaramae

13. Jan Bakelants

21. Thibaut Pinot

23. Sebastian Chavanel

51. Nairo Quintana

62. Damiano Caruso

67. Michael Schär

74. Thomas Debusschere

76. Adam Hansen

78. Marcel Sieberg

81. John Degenkolb

93. Jacopo Guarnieri

94. Marco Haller

96. Alexander Kristoff

105. Michael Matthews

115. Mark Renshaw

116. Zdenek Stybar

121. Pierre Rolland

131. Robert Gesink

132. Wilco Kelderman

133. Steven Kruijswijk

137. Laurens Ten Dam

139. Sep Vanmarcke

141. Bauke Mollema

147. Bob Jungels

152. Matteo Bono

158. Jose Serpa

164. Ryder Hesjedal

184. Stef Clement

192. Jan Barta

211. Edvald Boasson Hagen

219. Daniel Teklehaimanot

Today followed the script to a T for a sprint stage: a futile break, sprint teams assuming control in the final 30k, jockeying for position in the final 10k, and lead out men peeling off and saying a prayer as their sprinters do what they do best.

Eager to show off now that the race has entered their home region, Bretagne Séché sent 2 riders in the 4 man break. Anthony Delaplace, Brice Feillu (Bretagne Séché), Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN Qhubeka), and Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) rode a couple of minutes up the road from the peloton, who were presumably overjoyed to have a relatively easy day for once.

I had originally looked to Cavendish for the stage, knowing the Manxman was chomping at the bit and motivated to make it back to back Etixx stage wins after losing Tony Martin and the yellow jersey, but I was surprised to see the final couple hundred meters were not flat as the race book had indicated. Upon seeing the 4% slope leading to the finish line, I wrote off Cavendish immediately and thought it would be Peter Sagan's day.

In the closing kilometers, the sprint teams all came to the front while the GC teams sat close behind.

Coming up the final hill and around the bend, the strongest of the sprinters were neck and neck across the road. No one was fading, this was the very definition of full gas. It was anyone's race!

The one rider I had specifically named and then discarded was the one who pulled it off. It was close but clear: Cavendish had nabbed the stage ahead of Greipel and Sagan (who again seemed to throw his bike too early).

Below: Alexander Kristoff 5th, Arnaud Demare 6th, Tyler Farrar 7th, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg 8th, and Davide Cimolai 9th. Sam Bennett finished 10th (not pictured).

Without a sprinter, Geoffrey Soupe was Cofidis's top finisher on the stage.

Tony Gallopin, Geraint Thomas, and Daniel Oss.

Greg Van Avermaet and Jan Bakelants.

The bunch comes in.

Yohan Gène.

Joaquim Rodriguez.

Matthias Brandle.

Filippo Pozatto and Florian Senechal.

Jacques Janse Van Rensburg and Sep Vanmarcke.

Marco Haller, exhausted on a hot day.

Matteo Bono and Winner Anacona.

Danilo Wyss.

Ruben Plaza, Damiano Caruso, and Marcel Wyss.

Adam Yates and Bartosz Huzarski.

Sebastian Langeveld.

Lars Boom, Luca Paolini, and Zak Dempster.

Thomas De Gendt and Marcel Sieberg took massive pulls on the front today to set the stage for Greipel. Upon approaching the finish, De Gendt looked at the results board and held up 2 fingers, indicating Greipel's place to Sieberg.

Luis Angel Mate (center) spent over 100 kilometers in the break.

Michal Kwiatkowski and Adam Hansen.

Daniel Teklehaimanot.

Luke Durbridge, Matteo Tosatto, Michele Scarponi, Svein Tuft, Thomas Voeckler, and Pierre Rolland.

Alex Dowsett, Ryder Hesjedal, Nick Roche, and Michael Matthews.

A heavily bandaged Matthews seems unable to be competitive in the sprints, so I imagine he is staying in the race for the sake of the team time trial on Sunday. Down to just 6 riders, Orica cannot afford to lose another rider. Depending on how he feels on the rest day, it's probably 50/50 whether or not he reaches Paris.

Peter Kennaugh.

Rohan Dennis.

Rafal Majka.

The podium was brilliantly placed so that spectators could see it from multiple spots.

A jubilant Cavendish!

After Tony Martin abandoned overnight due to a fractured clavicle, Chris Froome became the virtual maillot jaune on the road. Finishing on bunch time, he was awarded the yellow jersey at the stage's end.

Greipel has been in the green jersey since winning stage 2.

Teklehaimanot added another point to his KOM tally to stay in polka dots for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a pair of Eritreans were losing their minds! It was great!

I'm happy to see Sagan stay in the white jersey if it means he doesn't have to wear the hideous Slovakian champion's kit.

Anthony Delaplace collected the most combative prize.

I hope the peloton took it easy today. Tomorrow they can look forward to an up-and-down 181k with two categorized climbs. The first, a cat 4, comes 100k into the stage, while the day ends by climbing the Mur de Bretagne. It's a cat 3, like the Mur de Huy. Bretagne is longer at 2 kilometers but not as steep. Rui Costa could have a go. MTN have 2 cards to play in either Farrar or Boasson Hagen while Kristoff, Degenkolb, and Sagan–all winless–will surely be near the front.

Judging from all the bunting and decorations around town, Abbeville has been eagerly awaiting the start of stage 6.

Bryan Coquard of Europcar, usually the first team to sign on each morning, signed autographs.

Lieuwe Westra headed straight to the snack table.

Christophe Laporte said the team had been forced to change their priorities after sprinter and team leader Nacer Bouhanni crashed out of the race yesterday. Bouhanni has suffered a spell of bad luck in the last 2 weeks as he crashed in the final 100 meters of the French road race national championships and crashed twice in the opening week of the Tour, ultimately withdrawing to tend to his aggravated injuries.

Cannondale Garmin suffered a blow yesterday when domestique Jack Bauer abandoned after crashing and breaking a bone in his hip. The kiwi has played a pivotal role for the team in the last two Tours, first working with David Millar to blow apart the peloton to set up Dan Martin's stage win in 2013 and then coming within 50 meters of a stage win himself after spending the entire race in a two man break in 2014. Despite this setback, team leader Andrew Talansky was in a jovial mood this morning.

The press spoke to Talansky and Geoffrey Soupe.

Tyler Farrar, a sprinter for MTN Qhubeka, rode a Buffalo Bike to the sign on, instead of his Cervelo racing bike. Qhubeka is a nonprofit that distributes specially designed, durable bicycles called Buffalo Bikes to children in Africa. With these bikes, kids who may have faced a long the journey on foot to school are able now to slash their commute, making them more likely to attend school regularly and able to enjoy the pleasures and freedoms that come with riding a bike. Qhubeka's goal is to parlay Tour de France media exposure into providing 5,000 Buffalo Bikes to African children.

The riders arrived in a steady stream, instead of waiting for the last 15 minutes, making it a busy morning of autograph hunting and chatting with the peloton. Consequently, I wasn't able to take too many photos during the sign on ceremony. The call to start came before I knew it and the street was lined three people deep to watch the riders depart.

Retired from the peloton after the 2013 season concluded and Vacansoleil folded, leaving him without a contract, Juan Antonio Flecha now covers races for EuroSport and spoke with Filippo Pozatto this morning.

Simon Geschke must have just applied sunblock before leaving the bus as his teammates kept telling him you've-got-a-little-on-your-cheek-over-here-still.

Italy's Manual Quinziatio and Colombia's Rigoberto Uran.

This reporter jogged alongside diminutive climber Julian Arredondo in an effort to wrap up his interview.

The peloton has already faced a TT, the Mur de Huy, pavé, inclement weather, predictably unpredictable winds, and a plethora of crashes before the first rest day. The riders will be able to relax a little for tomorrow's stage as the only categorized climb is a cat 4 in the opening 20km. The stage is otherwise a little lumpy, but nothing of consequence, and the weather shouldn't play a role, so watch for the sprinter's teams to take control near the end. Degenkolb is hungry for a win but so is Cavendish. They've both come close to stage wins but haven't pulled it off yet and will have to fight off, at the very least, Kristoff, Sagan, Boasson Hagen, and Greipel with 2 stages to his name already. After stage 7, opportunities are few and far between for the fast men until the Champs Élysées, so expect this one to come down to the line.

Today's 47 autographs came from:

3. Jakob Fuglsang

12. Romain Bardet

15. Ben Gasteur

16. Damien Gaudin

18. Johan Vansummeren

29. Benoît Vaugrenard

33. Leopold König

36. Nicholas Roche

37. Luke Rowe

45. Rafal Majka

53. Jonathan Castroviejo

57. Gorka Izagirre

63. Rohan Dennis

64. Daniel Oss

65. Manuel Quinziato

69. Danilo Wyss

83. Roy Curvers

84. Koen De Kort

103. Luke Durbridge

107. Pieter Weening

109. Simon Yates

113. Michal Golas

117. Matteo Trentin

124. Yohan Gène

127. Romain Sicard

136. Bram Tankink

151. Rui Costa

153. Davide Cimolai

154. Kristian Durasek

161. Andrew Talansky

163. Nathan Haas

165. Kristian Koren

166. Sebastian Langeveld

167. Dan Martin

168. Ramunas Navardauskas

169. Dylan Van Baarle

172. Nicholas Edet

173. Christophe Laporte

175. Daniel Navarro

179. Kenneth Van Bilsen

188. Jarlinson Pantano

194. Emanuel Buchmann

197. Jose Mendes

207. Arnaud Gérard

214. Jacques Janse Van Rensburg

215. Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg

216. Merhawi Kudus

For the second time in two years, Arras played host to a Tour stage. And for the second time in two years, it was a gray and soggy morning. The rain divided its time evenly between drizzling, down pouring, and taking a break. As the team buses arrived, the rain actually let up for the first thirty minutes of the sign on window. Of course, no more than a dozen of the 190 or so riders actually signed on during the dry spell.

One drawback of the new digital podium is that it's so tall, most riders disappear when they stand behind it!

Cyril Gautier and Pierre Rolland.

Like all of the big French riders, Rolland, leader of Europcar, is in special demand once again now that the race has left Holland and Belgium for France.

Sprinter Bryan Coquard.

With about 20 minutes to go and the bulk of the peloton yet to sign on, the rain picked up again just in time for maillot jaune Tony Martin and his Etixx Quick Step teammates to arrive and claim their prize as the best overall team. As is often the case, the media, who understandably have a job to do, blocked the public's view.

Unlike the 2014 departure which began inside the picturesque citadel in a muddy square, Arras moved the start this year to a parking lot just outside the citadel (though there was still some mud to be found).

Riders grabbed their snacks, then lingered under the relative shelter of the Power Bar umbrella.

When virtually every rider turned up at the same time just a few minutes before the stage was due to start, the commissarie allows everyone to sign on and the start was nearly ten minutes delayed.

The peloton was on its way to Amiens, precisely where I changed trains after leaving Arras. As the arrival was just outside the train station, I was sorely tempted to stick around for the next few hours until the finish, but stuck to my original itinerary and caught the race on TV. Ironically, following the tour in person means I get to see surprisingly little of the race itself!

The parcours took the peloton across the fields of northern France. It was fields of green and wheat as far as the eye could see, interrupted every few kilometers by museums, memorials, cemeteries, and bomb craters from WWI. Today, the world watched a bike race when one hundred years ago, the world watched a war unfold.

A peloton of probably 70-80 riders moved as one into a strong headwind. With all the GC riders and sprinters protected in the first group, there were a few early crashes, following which it was a relatively uneventful day until at 25k to go, a Katusha rider rear ended a Cannondale Garmin rider about halfway through the pack, taking down nearly everyone behind. It looked as though everyone got back up (unlike an earlier crash which saw Nacer Bouhanni exit the race) but the time wasted waiting for team cars and energy spent chasing back didn't do anyone any favors.

At 10k to go, all of the present teams were organized and the trains battled for positioning. With 6k left, Cavendish, Kristoff, and Sagan were side by side. In the last 5k, most teams were down to just 3 riders while Etixx Quick Step still had 5. Sprint trains began to fall apart in the chaos. By the flamme rouge, Giant, Lotto Soudal, and Etixx were well positioned. In the final few hundred meters, no sprinter was sitting on his lead out man's wheel and it was every man for himself. Coming from fifth place back, Andre Greipel rocketed past the competition, starting on the right side of the road and finishing on the left, to claim his second stage win, ahead of a still accelerating Peter Sagan. It was another disappointing day for Cavendish (3rd) and Degenkolb (6th), having both come close to stage wins already.

Stage six continues the Tour's journey westward along the north of France with a trio of category 4 climbs that aren't likely to be decisive. The finale is punchy and the finish line is likely to suit a Degenkolb or Kristoff style sprinter though Ramunas Navardauskas is a plausible dark horse so long as his team can position him. Michael Matthews probably had earmarked this stage, but has been off the back since the rib-breaking stage 3 crash. It'll be an interesting one for sure.

Today's seven autographs (a decent tally considering I had put the flag away for most of the morning given the rain) came from: 32 Peter Kennaugh, 61 Tejay Vangarderen, 106 Svein Tuft, 128 Angelo Tulik, 129 Thomas Voeckler, 182 Matthias Brandle, and 201 Eduardo Sepúlveda.