Sky 1

Well done to Team Sky in general and specifically Edvald Boasson Hagen for notching up their first Tour stage win. A really good effort and a much deserved result. The smile on David Brailsfords face was good to see. This could be the boost the team needs to help it settle and capitalise on its good performance so far this tour.

Not so well done to Levi Leipheimer. He lost 1’05” on the main bunch, finishing 91st. His problem was caused by the road markings. White lines and other markings can get very slippery in the rain and yesterday was very wet. It looked like he was on the outside of the bunch, to the right of the road and he drifted onto an edge marking and down he went.

Looking at the start list for yesterday, I saw that the Euskaltel Euskadi rider that I had seen laying in the gutter on stage 5 was Ivan Velasco. He had to retire with a broken collar bone. Hard luck Ivan. He finished the stage on Wednesday, rolling in 12' 43" down on the winner in 193rd place. Gutsy stuff riding with a broken collar bone.

At the start of this morning- stage 7 from Le Mans to Châteauroux, there have been 5 withdrawals, so the race is currently running with 193 riders. Stage 7 is about as flat a stage as you get and looks to be an ideal opportunity for mark Cavendish to add to his tally of wins. In fact, Châteauroux is the scene of his first ever TdF win.

Come on Cav, give it some mate.