Racing
TdF Daily | Stage 6 | Late-race disappointment after a strong showing from our squad
Marijn van den Berg is okay after his crash
July 4, 2024
EF Education-EasyPost had done everything right, keeping Marijn van den Berg at the front of the peloton, as the bunch split time and again in the crosswinds that were sweeping across the vineyards of Burgundy.
After his Tour de France sprint debut on stage five, Marijn was determined to go better on stage six. He didn’t waste a pedal stroke, surfing wheels for the first 157 kilometers, as the very nervous pack tore northwards from Mâcon, through the Côte d’Or, en route to Dijon.
Then, with seven kilometers to go, Marijn came round a roundabout, surrounded by his teammates, our boys in pink ready to make their final push to the line. A touch of wheels ahead and braking rippled back through the peloton. Before he could react, Marijn hit another ride and fell.
His squad-mates stopped to make sure he was okay. Luckily, Marijn was just a bit banged up and bruised and very disappointed. They got him back on his bike, pushed him off, and finished the stage together.
As Ben Healy said earlier, “We win together and we lose together.”
Today, we lost, but there will be other chances. Marijn won’t let a bit of road rash and some bruises stop him. He rode a great race today. So did our whole squad.
For now, we’ll focus on tomorrow’s TT and toast the Fourth of July with some mineral water.
Hear our riders’ thoughts from after stage six.
Sean Quinn
It was a pretty disappointing day for the team. It was stressful all day with positioning and stuff, but we did well with the boys. Marijn was in a good position to do a good sprint so the crash was pretty frustrating. I’m not exactly sure what happened but it feels like a bit of a wasted day to be honest.
It was good to ride my new bike. It did get rained on, so it’s already dirty but I’m sure the mechanics will clean it up nice and fresh for the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow is the TT.
Andreas Klier, sports director
At the end of the day, you have sprinter teams and GC teams working on a day like this. The wind pushed the riders more or less toward the finish. There was a sidewind, small roads, big roads, a lot of stress for the riders. I think they rode 46 or 47 km/hr average. In the end, we had bad luck because we wanted to do the best possible with Marijn. He crashed in a moment where it was much too late to try to come back or to try anything else. Tomorrow is the TT and we go from there.