Peter Sagan wins Stage 6 of Tour de France

Stage 6: A flat 129-mile ride from Epernay to Metz across the green vineyards of the Champagne region.

Winner: Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who won his third stage victory at this year’s Tour after a massive crash 16 miles from the finish thinned the ranks of sprinters, including world champion Mark Cavendish, who finished six minutes behind.

Yellow jersey: Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland kept the race leader’s jersey for a seventh consecutive day. He leads Bradley Wiggins of Britain by seven seconds. Defending champ Cadel Evans of Australia moved up one place to sixth, 17 seconds off the pace.

Stat of the day: 6. The number of riders who dropped out of the race after crashing during the stage’s two big pile-ups, including former three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain and American rider Tom Danielson.

Quote of the day: “It was like a trench hit by a [grenade] when I entered the crash to give my bike to Bauke. Lots of blood and screaming. Carnage.” — Rabobank’s Laurens Ten Dam on Twitter talking about the crash and teammate Bauke Mollema.

Saturday’s seventh stage: A 123-mile ride to the ski resort of La Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges. The stage features the Tour’s first Category-1 climb, a brutally steep four-mile ascent with the final few hundred yards at an average gradient of 14%.

Stage 6 results

Overall standings