After losing main man and last year's champion Chris Froome yesterday, the British team suffered another casualty as Zandio was forced to retire with a suspected broken collarbone following a crash on the descent of the first of two category four climbs which also claimed Katusha's Russian rider Egor Silin.

Zandio's compatriot Jesus Hernandez, riding for the Tinkoff-Saxo team, was involved in another pile-up one kilometre later resulting in him becoming the third retiree during the 194 kilometres  stage from Arras to Reims which was punctuated by some heavy downpours.

A four-man group led by Dutchman Tom Leezer of Belkin broke away from the main peloton early on, establishing a lead of over four minutes at one point.

But, as the riders made their way over the category four climbs, the lead group were eventually swallowed up by the peloton 12km from home.

Xabier Zandio of Team Sky grimaces in pain after crashing during stage six of the Tour de France forcing the Spaniard to retire from the race ©Getty Images



Just as it was in Lille during stage four on Tuesday (July 8), the finish today saw a mass sprint to the line and it was another German who came out on top as Greipel followed compatriot Marcel Kittel by picking up the stage victory.

Kittel, who already has three stage wins to his name this week, was expected to be in contention again but a puncture put paid to any hopes he had.

Instead it was Lotto Belisol rider Greipel who secured his sixth career Tour de France stage win ahead of Norway's Alexander Kristoff and Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin.

"I'm really happy that I got the stage win," said the 31-year-old.

"There was a lot of pressure on us and finally we have it.

"Whoever was doubting Lotto Belisol got a good answer today.

"There was a lot of pressure on us but we finally got our win.

"I lost a lot of energy positioning myself but with 250 metres to go [and then] I just went for it."

Greipel punches the air in delight after winning the sprint in Reim today ©Getty Images



Italian Vincenzo Nibali maintained his overall lead as the Astana rider finished comfortably in the peloton to remain two seconds clear of teammate Jakob Fugslang of Denmark, with Slovakian Peter Sagan in third.

The Cannondale rider recovered after being caught up in one of today's pile-ups to finish today's stage in fifth place, behind Pole Michal Kwiatkowski, and hold on to the sprinter's green jersey.

Tomorrow is due to see the riders tackle the 234.5km stage from Epernay to Nancy.

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