Alex Baudin led the peloton over the Côte de Baleix to consolidate his lead in the King of the Mountains competition at the end of Stage 6 of the Tour de France.

Once Alex had secured his point, Kasper Asgreen took off over the summit in a late-race attempt to foil the sprinters’ teams and have a little fun. Kasper pushed hard, but his group of three couldn’t hold off the collective power of the peloton and they were brought back before the bunch sprint in Pau.

That was always going to be the most likely outcome, so our squad spent most of the race from Lannemezan to Pau trying to keep cool in the near 40-degree heat and save their legs for tomorrow’s Pyrenean epic.

Stage 6 will take the race over the Côte de Loucrup and Côte de Mauvezin, before the Col d’Aspin and Col du Tourmalet before the final climb to Gavarnie-Gèdre.

Alex will go all-in to try to defend his polka dot jersey.

“It was a good day — not too slow, not too fast, not super hard, and the boys did a good job to help get one mountain point. So yeah, it was a good day. Kasper basically shut down the sprint. I told him to, and then I just had to make sure Molenaar didn't pass me – he was in my wheel, so it was perfect. It was a beautiful day. It seemed less hot than yesterday. I took a small point at the end; it wasn’t too much of an effort, so I went for it to secure the polka dot jersey with the help of my teammates. Tomorrow, I’ll have to bring out the climber in me. I hope my legs are good because it’s not going to be easy. It’s really nice to have this jersey. Everyone is shouting my name on the side of the road. I’m really enjoying it. With a flat start, it’s not easy for me but I hope to make it to the breakaway and score points on the climb.” – Alex Baudin

“The legs were fine. It was a pretty chill day. Then, somebody crashed in a corner with 5.2 kilometers to go, which means you have to catch back on before the end. We were all behind it, so a lot of the GC riders were back there too, luckily. They towed us back to the finish pretty quickly, but it was a bit annoying. It was an easy day for four hours, and then the last five minutes were basically full gas.” – Sean Quinn

“We were helping Alex with the mountain points, keeping Molenaar behind, and then I saw Fred Wright coming over the top, so I thought, why not, let's go and see if we can make it stick. At first, when I saw them hesitating in the bunch, I thought, OK, maybe if we get 30–40 seconds it could be on. But then they got organized and came back pretty quickly, so – it is what it is. It was worth a shot, though.” – Kasper Asgreen

“We expected a sprint stage – the first sprint stage of the Tour, and with the five-kilometer rule, we wanted to be safe there. Unfortunately, there was this corner with 5.6 kilometers to go that mixed things up a bit from there on. It was hard to say exactly what happened. We were safe, nobody from us crashed, and I hope nobody from other teams got hurt.” – Andreas Klier, sports director

Alex Baudin’s Wahoo showed an average temperature of 36 degrees Celsius with a peak of 39 during Stage 6 of the Tour de France. Keeping cool in such extreme temperatures is a massive challenge. Our soigneurs race around the race course with cold bottles to drink and ice socks for our riders to stuff down their jerseys. Alex’s teammates kept dropping back to the race Cadillac to collect bottles of water for him to pour over his head. Thanks to their efforts, Alex finished the stage in good spirits and feeling strong. He is ready to take on tomorrow’s stage in the Pyrenees.

The most sought after item in this year’s Tour caravan is the pink EF (Education-First) bucket hat. Soigneur Mamat had some extra time at this afternoon’s finish in Pau, so he set off to find our EF teammates, who were roaming the finish straight, handing out gifts to our fans. Mamat brought bidons and a musette to trade and came back with the coolest headwear from the 2026 Tour. He saved two for his kids. The rest of us are going to try to bribe him for the other ones he got.

Chefs Owen and Chris baked our squad one of their favorite desserts for after-dinner on Stage 4. Banana bread is a tasty treat that helps them top up their stores of carbs.

Ingredients (Serves 12)

300g white all-purpose flour, unenriched

5 ripe bananas, fresh

8g cinnamon, ground

7g nutmeg

100g brown sugar

3 large eggs

4.6g baking powder

10g salt, sea salt

50g oats, regular or quick cooking, dry

100g olive oil

100g honey (optional)

Method

Blend the bananas with the sugar, olive oil, and eggs using a magimix, whisk, or hand blender.

Once combined, add the remaining ingredients and fold them into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into a greaseproof-lined baking tray, filling it about 2/3 of the way up.

Bake according to your desired consistency or until a toothpick comes out.

Decorate with a sliced banana and drizzle with honey and/or yogurt.

Tour de France riders can consume over 120 grams of carbohydrates per hour to keep their energy up during the race. To stay hydrated, they will drink three or more 500ml bottles of fluid per hour. If they are ever starting to fade, they will drop back to the team Cadillac to resupply their stock of Amacx bars, gels, and drinks. There are also feedzones along the course, where team staff will stand with more food and drinks. The French word for feedzone is zone de ravitaillement. Its root is the Latin vita meaning life. Old French called the Latin victualia – things necessary for life – vitaille. To ravitailler was to resupply or, more literally, revictual. Ravitaillement turns this into a noun. It means the resupply or reprovisioning. When the race is on and it's tough to go back to the car, a well-placed ravitaillement can bring a thirsty rider back to life.