Dylan Teuns wins atop La Planche des Belles Filles from the breakaway

Dylan Tuens overhauled breakaway companion Ciccone, however Ciccone took the Yellow Jersey from Alaphilippe

Stage 6 from Mulhouse to la Planche des Belles Filles was the first mountain finish and featured three 1st category, 2 third category and two 2nd category climbs and over 4,000m of climbing, one of the hardest stages of the 2019 Tour de France.

A big breakaway of 14 riders went away early on; Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Serge Pauwels (CCC), Julien Bernard and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Nikias Arndt (Sunweb), Natnael Berhane (Cofidis), Thomas De Gendt and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Xandro Meurisse and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and André Greipel (Arkéa-Samsic).

Tim Wellens took maximum KOM points over the first category climb of La Markstein.

The next climb on top of the La Markstein, was the Grand Ballon (1.3km at 9%), pretty steep up to 1,336m, De Gendt was first, Ciccone was second and Cosnefroy was third after Wellens sat up on the climb of the Grand Ballon.

Berhane took the points, with Wellens and Ciccone second and third on the climb of Col du Hunsruck. Greipel was still there in the breakaway digging in but there were clearly some tired legs out there. The gap was still over seven minutes.

Over the fifth climb of the day, the Col des Croix, Wellens took it., Ciccone was either second or third.

With 35 kms to go, Thomas De Gendt attacked out of the breakway onto the lower slopes of the Col de Chevreres, a steep 3,5 km climb at 9%.

Meanwhile in the peloton, Movistar took up the pace setting, the lead started to come down with 30 kms to go, down to over 5 minutes from a maximum lead of over 8 minutes.

In the peloton, with 20 kms to go Movistar started to increase the pace, Wout Poels from Team Ineos was dropped.  

Thomas de Gendt struggled on the steep 18% climb of the 1st category col des Croix, the four chasers Ciccone, Tuens, Meurisse and Wellens overhauled de Gendt.

Tuens took the KOM points on the Col des Croix, with a lead of 4 minutes with 18 kms to go.

Ciccone, Tuens, Meurisse and Wellens hit the bottom of the final climb of the la Planche des Belle Filles with 4 minutes lead.

Meanwhile the main peloton was  reduced by around 30 riders who were dropped, the favorites are all together as they hit the top of the penultimate 1st category climb of the Col des Croix.

The gap started to come down as Movistar increased the pace with 6 kms to go, 3m 30s, behind Team Ineos and Alaphilippe in the Yellow jersey followed.

With 5 kms to go, riders started dropped off the reduced peloton as Movistar's pace started to bite.

With 4.4 kms to go Tim Wellens was dropped in the breakaway.

With 4 kms to go Team Ineos took up the pace setting.

Meurisse was dropped, leaving Ciccone, Tuens left out in front.

Warren Barguil attacked with 3.5 kms to go out of the peloton.

With 3 kms to go Mikel Landa put in a huge attack.

2 kms to go FDJ took up the pace setting

Mikel Landa was gaining on the two leaders Ciccone and Tuens on the final kilometres on the gravel section.

Dylan Tuens overhauled breakaway companion Ciccone on the line.

Behind, Alaphillipe attacked with 500m to go in the Yellow Jersey, Geriant Thomas countered and overhauled Alaphilippe with Pinot, just behind on the line.

Behind them, Nibali and Bardet lost time.

Alaphilppe lost the yellow jersey to Ciccone who leads by just six seconds.

VIDEO: 2019 Tour de France Stage 6 Highlights

2019 Tour de France Stage 6 Top 10

1 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 4:29:03
2 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:11
3 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Gobert 0:01:05
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:44
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:01:46
6 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:01:46
7 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:01:51
8 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:51
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:53
10 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:53

2019 Tour de France GC after Stage 6

1 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 23:14:55
2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:06
3 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:32
4 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:47
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:00:49
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 0:00:53
7 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:58
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:04
9 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First 0:01:13
10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First 0:01:15