For this year's Tour de France we've teamed up with The Velocast to share with you their nominated Conquistador of the Day. During their daily stage review podcast, Scott and John will announce the rider who they feel deserves a special mention for their efforts that day.

After a thrilling mountain stage and a dirt track finish on the wickedly steep "Plank of Beautiful Girls", Velocast's John Galloway was spoilt for choice for his selection of Conquistador of the Day. Here's who he went for and why:

"We have a whole list of choices today. It's easy to look at Giulio Ciccone and Dylan Teuns and pick one of them. Ciccone in particular, I genuinely think the team had forgotten about the yellow jersey because he shook his head and looked so disappointed when he lost the race, and they were out in the breakaway all day. They had clearly planned it properly. So, they ran through my head.

Then I thought about Julian Alaphilippe, when he attacked from the bunch to try and retain the yellow jersey. My thought was we're only on stage six and I'm gonna pick the same guy twice for Conquistador of the Day!

But I'm actually going to go for Geraint Thomas because it's not just us that have been essentially saying that Geraint was a one-trick-pony and that Egan Bernal was the king in waiting at Team INEOS. And that may still turn out to be the case. With the time above 2,000 metres in the third week, the Colombian may come to the good and forge a victory which we will remember for a very long time.

But today, just today, Geraint burst from that group, chased after Julian Alaphilippe, passed him. And at the mighty speed of 11 kilometres per hour, crossed the line first amongst the GC favourites. So it's a Welsh Conquistador today - Geraint Thomas."

After winning stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné at Craponne-sur-Arzon, Dylan Teuns took his maiden Tour de France victory on his debut in the race while his last breakaway companion, Italy’s Giulio Ciccone, who carries the same family name as singer Madonna but is not related to her although they both originate from Abbruzzo, took the yellow jersey. Two Tour de France debutants found glory at La Planche des Belles Filles.

14 riders in the lead

175 riders took the start of stage 6 in Mulhouse. One non-starter: Patrick Bevin (CCC), due to fractured ribs on stage 4. After 4km, 14 riders formed a breakaway group: 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). Their advantage was already 6’40’’ at the intermediate sprint of Linthal (km 29) won by Pasqualon while Michael Matthews (Sunweb) outsprinted Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) for the remaining point on offer. At the top of the first category 1 climb of the 2019 Tour de France, the Markstein, Wellens found a new rival for the King of the Mountains competition as Ciccone hinted that he’s interesting in doubling up.

Tim Wellens retains the polka dot jersey

A maximum time gap was reached at the bottom of the Ballon d’Alsace, km 94: 8’30’’. It was down to 7’20’’ at the top, after which GC teams showed up at the head of the peloton to relay Deceuninck-Quick Step in the chase: Ineos and Bahrain-Merida in second lane before Movistar decided to up the tempo of the bunch within 50km to go. At col des Croix 37km before the end, De Gendt went for two KOM points and forged on so he became the lone leader. He got caught 1km before the col des Chevrères by Teuns, Ciccone, Pauwels and Wellens while world champion Alejandro Valverde made the race hard at the front of the peloton. With 10km to go, the leading quartet still had 4’ over the peloton.

Stage win for Teuns, Ciccone in the yellow jersey

Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) was the first man to attack from the peloton before Mikel Landa (Movistar) who was eventually reeled in because of a late acceleration by Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) who tried to retain the yellow jersey but missed out by six seconds. Ciccone took over as the leader of the Tour de France but lost the stage victory to Teuns at Super Planche, the steep part above the usual finish. It’s the first stage win for Bahrain-Merida at the Tour de France [in their third participation]. The last Italian in the yellow jersey was Fabio Aru two years ago. Geraint Thomas (Ineos) and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) were the first of the favourites while Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) lost contact with the main group.

Conquistadors of the Day - Tour de France 2019

Stage 1 - Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team)

Stage 2 - Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

Stage 3 - Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step)

Stage 4 - Michael Mørkøv (Deceuninck - Quick-Step)

Stage 5 - Marcus Burghardt (BORA - hansgrohe)

Stage 6 - Geraint Thomas (Team INEOS)

For the daily podcast from Le Tour and more visit velocast.cc.

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