Tour de France cyclocross: Sepp Kuss takes the scenic route to avoid high-speed crash (Pogačar wins + takes yellow); On yer bike!; Council plan will "make roads more dangerous"; Roubaix stage carnage; Drama made for Netflix + more on the live blog

Maybe this will be the start of a new series. Keep your eyes peeled for The UAE Team Emirates' Arms and The Dog and Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team...

Big claims from Simon who's out on his travels this afternoon: "Arguably the best secteur of pave this side of Lille too, got to be a good 300 metres of it. Private mews for the win". 

More importantly than all of the above...here's the bike...

> Bike at Bedtime – Some Giro pink on an Italian Colnago classic

Tadej Pogacar takes the stage AND the yellow jersey!

What a sprint!#TDF2022 #ITVCycling pic.twitter.com/HCoAopgwl2

— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 7, 2022

Shall we all pack up and go home now?

 Tadej Pogačar sprinted to victory on stage six's hilltop finish and is now the third holder of the yellow jersey at this year's race. Poor Ryan might need to update his article from last night...

> Is the Tour de France already over?

Michael Matthews won the 'without Pog' race, while David Gaudu was third. Tom Pidcock was prominently placed in the final stages but couldn't better fourth. A defiant Primož Roglič opened the sprint first, but it was really only delaying the inevitable as his Slovenian compatriot eased around the Jumbo-Visma rider opening up a big gap instantly. Despite Matthews' best efforts said gap was held all the way to the line.

 Pogačar is now 31 seconds clear of Jonas Vingegaard (the closest GC rival). Neilson Powless is four seconds back and will hope for a spell in yellow (if Pogačar allows it)...

Destructive brilliance yet again from the 23-year-old...

When you realise you've won your first Giro Donne stage. 🙌🏻 @JulietteLabous #GiroDonne22 pic.twitter.com/pBD6tEZWnx

— Team DSM (@TeamDSM) July 7, 2022

Marianne Vos walked away from the Giro d'Italia Donne this morning to "recharge and focus on the next team goals". That might have something to do with the fact the parcours heads into the mountains for the next few stages, starting with today's won by Team DSM's Juliette Labous.

Behind, Annemiek van Vleuten gained another four seconds (plus a two bonus second advantage) over her nearest maglia rosa rival Mavi García, meaning she now leads the race by 31 seconds. Marta Cavalli is third on GC and was the third of the GC riders across the line, 10 seconds after Van Vleuten.

Tomorrow the race crosses Passo Bordala and Lago di Cei during a 104km stage finishing in Aldeno.

Can anyone crack Van Vleuten?

Some poor guy at the back is in 54x11 and struggling to hold the last wheel, wondering who on earth can be riding so hard on the front of the bunch pic.twitter.com/U0L2KoaqPQ

— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 7, 2022

The situation has changed again since we last spoke...

Now it's Wout van Aert back on the attack. He's got Jakob Fuglsang and Quinn Simmons with him. 27 seconds advanatge... let's see if this one sticks... 

Team bike exchange https://t.co/QbUjTr4pYV

— Alastair Johnstone (@a_lastair) July 6, 2022

One of the stranger incidents on yesterday's stage led to this tweet from EF Education-EasyPost team boss Jonathan Vaughters...

Well. This will be an interesting post race debrief…. #netflix

— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) July 6, 2022

The incident? Alberto Bettiol, a teammate of Neilson Powless and Magnus Cort — both up the road in with a chance of the stage win and Powless potentially riding into yellow — appeared very pally with Tadej Pogačar, rode to the front, checked Pog was on his wheel, then put the hammer down.

No, we're not sure why...

One of the most bizarre things I have ever seen in cycling in #TDF2022

With 2 EF teammates ahead in G1 hunting stage & yellow, Bettiol:

- moves to the front of G2
- says something to Pogacar
- starts pacing very hard
- checks multiple times to see if Pogacar is in his wheel pic.twitter.com/rCsEU8gOeU

— Patrick Broe (@LanterneRougeYT) July 6, 2022

Anyway, Simon Clarke won the stage, Powless missed out on yellow by 13 seconds to Wout van Aert who keeps the jersey for another day, and Netflix have some drama to get their teeth into...

Stay. Off. The. Road. 

Sector 3 chute spectateurs @TeamTotalEnrg @Daniel87Oss pic.twitter.com/dkExu8NNwl

— Victor Loy (@LoyVictor) July 6, 2022

At Roubaix (or the Tour equivalent) every rider will get back on the team bus with a story to tell: a puncture, a crash, a near miss. But due to the spread out nature of the day most of these incidents happen away from the TV cameras and go unseen.

However, roadside spectator Victor Loy captured the moment TotalEnergies' Daniel Oss, skirting the non-cobbled dirt, found his path blocked by a fan and collided violently into a young spectator, causing himself, the Bora-hansgrohe rider following and Michael Gogl third-wheel (who abandoned the race due to his injuries) to crash. 

Overnight, Oss joined Gogl in abandoning from the race, his team saying: "Additional examinations revealed a fracture of a cervical vertebra requiring immobilisation for a few weeks."

In the carnage, Oss' battered bike lies saddle-less on the cobbles, while another spectator holds the missing saddle...

Also largely unseen by the TV cameras was the fall that brought Primož Roglič down. We saw the TV moto pass the roundabout, seemingly dragging the protective hay bale into the road, before the group, including Caleb Ewan who we did see fall, struggled to get around safely.

Roglič was slightly behind Ewan, but this roadside snap shows the impact which left him putting his own shoulder back in place at the side of the road...

The photo from Primoz Roglic’s crash during today’s stage taken by spectator @Fabian_IF.
Hoping he can continue in good shape the rest of the Tour 🤞🏼#TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/2QRcX2x7ka

— Laura Meseguer (@Laura_Meseguer) July 6, 2022

"I couldn't put it back in on the road," A quite unbelievably matter-of-fact Rog told reporters afterwards. "So I needed to sit on a chair of a spectator to use a technique to pull my arm down and put it back in."  

A couple of days recovery? Of course not, straight back to it...