Tour de France Stage 6: Mark Cavendish wins again (+ video)

Mark Cavendish has won Stage 6 of the Tour de France, his third victory in this year's race, outsprinting Etixx-Quick Step's Marcel Kittel in Montauban for the 29th stage win of his career, just five behind Eddy Merckx's record of 34.

Third place was taken by another British rider, Dan McLay of Fortuneo Vital Concept - his fourth top ten placing in his debut in the race, and the highest yet.

His victory today sees Cavendish move back into the lead of the points classification, while BMC Racing's Greg Van Avermaet retains the race lead, 5 minutes 13 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Julian Alaphilippe of Etixx-Quick Step.

The yellow jersey looks certain to change hands on tomorrow's first high mountain stage, which includes the Category 1 Col d'Aspin, the summit of which is just 7km from the stage finish at Lac de Payolle.

On a baking hot day as the race heads towards the Pyrenees, today’s break comprised two riders, Jan Barta of Bora-Argon 18 and Lampre-Merida’s Yukiya Arashiro.

The pair got away just 3km into the 190.5km stage from Arpajon-sur-Cère and built a lead of around five minutes at one point, but with brought back with 20km remaining.

One curiosity of this year’s race is that all 198 riders who took to the start at Mont St-Michel on Saturday are still riding.

The last time all the starters made it as far as Stage 6 was in 2000; 177 men began the race that year, although three had to pull out before the race began because their haematocrit levels were too high.