Alexey Lutsenko became the 2020 Tour de France's first breakaway winner with a self-assured climb out of a talented group of riders. He went solo with just under 18 kilometers to go after following a move by young American Neilson Powless. As Powless' legs gave out, there was no one left to challenge the defending Kazakhstan road and time trial national champion.

Stage 6 was much livelier than Stage 5's historically lazy stroll. For one, it moved much more briskly. The peloton averaged a wind-aided 50 kilometers an hour before the finishing sequence of climbs began. (For once, the stage ended at an hour that won't eat into my lunch)

For two, there was a proper breakaway. Sunweb's Nicolas Roche, riding in his 10th Tour de France, attacked from the outset, and was joined by Lutsenko, Powless, Greg van Avermaet (do dooo doo doo doo), Daniel Oss, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Remi Cavagna and Jesus Herrada; a strong group of riders who are also comfortable solo artists.

However, for a second straight day the peloton never did more work than it needed. The break pushed the gap to the peloton up to a hefty 6 minutes, 40 seconds with about 100 kilometers to go before the peloton upped the tempo in preparation for the general classification hopefuls.

With 45 kilometers to go, the peloton was 4:40 back while being led by the garishly yellow combination of Jumbo-Visma and Mitchelton-Scott (yellow kits should really be banned if they aren't the Maillot Jaune). The breakaway had four minutes when the climbs started with 35k to go, and 2:41 with 25k to go when Oss and Boasson Hagen were dropped from the break.

But that's as much as the peloton threatened the stage leaders. Ineos took over the head of the pack, and happily drove a mild pace. This year's general classification riders have seemingly committed to saving their legs for the third week of the Tour, when one great attack could decide the yellow jersey. Maybe that's a sound strategy, but it's not the best way to drum up excitment.

Up ahead on the road, Powless began testing his five remaining breakmates. With 22.2k to go he accelerated and left behind Herrada, the only pure climber in the break. Roche, Lutsenko and Van Avermaet bridged, which left four riders to contest the stage win.

Powless -- riding on his 24th birthday! -- kept the pressure on. He attacked again with just under 18k to go, this time dropping Roche and Van Avermaet. Only Lutsenko followed, and seemingly spoke encouragement to Powless when he caught up, possibly trying to create an alliance. But Powless was out of gas. Lutsenko slowly distanced the American and everybody else to wrap up a career win.

Herrada, who had seemingly been left for dead, maintained a steady pace to finish second (though he looked much more uncomfortable that Lutsenko as he crossed the finish line). Powless fell back to Van Avermaet, and the two rode together up to the final run-in, when Van Avermaet accelerated to take third.

From the peloton, Fabio Aru attacked with 20.2k to go. In the past, this might have caused the peloton to split apart, but the 30-year-old Aru was 3:37 off the lead entering the day, so off he went without a care from anyone else. He never gained more than 30 seconds on the peloton before getting reeled in.

After the breakaway finished, we were treated to another (though more subdued than Stage 4) sprint among the general classification contenders. Julian Alaphilippe launched a late "go fudge yourself" sprint to take fifth place on the stage and one second on his rivals. He would be even more solidly in the yellow jersey if not for his soif-pas on Wednesday.

But if it's any consolation, we get to watch a salty, petty Alaphilippe needle his rivals from now on. At least he'll keep everyone on their toes.

Should I be excited about Powless? (USA USA USA)

Hell yeah! That was an incredible and spirited effort on a day when everyone else was content to stare at their power meters. Powless took second in the time trial and third in the road race at 2019 Nationals. He's a punchy young rider who held his own in a breakaway that included an Olympic champion. That was a badass performance.

No nonsense?

This was maybe the most nonsense free stage of the Tour so far. There were a few tumbles, but nothing serious. Tadej Pogacar had a mechanical problem with 7.5k to go, but he soloed back onto the peloton and remains in third overall after finishing with the bunch.

Fun!

And we mean it this time.

Julian Alaphilippe has been perfectly diplomatic in response to #BottleGate. The offending staffer? Reportedly his cousin, Franck Alaphilippe. Get it together, Franck.

This botched bottle handoff should be a five-second penalty, at least.

This photo, sadly, did not age well. On the plus side for Deceuninck-Quick Step, the green bike chain on Sam Bennett's bike looked nice.

Here's Mitchelton-Scott's gobsmacked reactions to Adam Yates getting handed the yellow jersey yesterday.

Favorite shot of the day was this moonbase:

Few things warm my heart like the fact that the French may love Raymond Poulidor, who famously never won the Tour, more than Bernard Hinault, who won five.

There's not much road left to paint on Grand Colombier.

The standings

STAGE 6

1. Alexey Lutsenko - 4hr 32min 34sec
2. Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) - +55sec
3. Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) - +2min 15sec
4. Neilson Powless (Education First) - +2min 17sec
5. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) - +2min 52sec
6. Bauke Mollema(Trek-Segafredo) - +2min 53sec
7. Michal Kwiatkowski(Ineos) - “
8. Egan Bernal(Ineos) - “
9. Richard Carapaz(Ineos) - “
10. Adam Yates(Mitchelton-Scott) - “

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — 27hr 3min 57sec
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — +3sec
3. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) — +7sec
4. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) — +9sec
5. Egan Bernal (Ineos) — +13sec
6. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) — “
7. Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) — “
8. Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) — “
9. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) — “
10. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – "

GREEN JERSEY

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 129 points
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 117
3. Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) — 93
4. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) — 75
5. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 71

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) — 23 points
2. Michael Gogl (NTT) — 12
3. Nicolas Roche (Sunweb) -- 11
4. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) – 10
5. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) -- 10

Stage 7 preview -- 168km from Millau to Lavaur

Stage 7 will begin at 1:35 p.m. local, 7:35 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

Friday could rival Wednesday in terms of pure banality.

Once again, the profile is conducive to a sprint finish, and sandwiched between two difficult days (Stage 8 will feature the Tour's first Hors Categorie climb). This year's peloton is loathe to expend any more energy than absolutely necessary, and barring nonsense there's not much here to trouble anyone.

The one potential X-factor: Wind. The Tarn and Aveyron are valley regions notorious for wind gusts. Stiff crosswinds could mean echelons and potentially costly peloton splits (Thibaut Pinot lost 1:40 on what was supposed to be an innocuous GC day last year, for example).

If conditions hold, however, this won't do much:

So yeah, we're tracking for another sleepy morning. But I should mention that I love this region. The French side of my family hails from the Aveyron, and I can confirm that the pictures will be very pretty. Early in the stage, riders will cross the Millau Viaduct, which is the tallest bridge in the world and sits nicely in the landscape. The stage also passes through Castres, birthplace of famous French socialist philosopher and leader Jean Jaurès. His name adorns every other street in France, making it impossible to figure out where you're going.

Enjoy some aligot and tripou, and only put as much effort into watching this stage as the riders.