TDF 2024:-Stage 6: Mâcon – Dijon, 163.5km ***Spoilers***

Stage 6: Mâcon – Dijon, 163.5km

July 4th.

Start Time: 12-35BST.

The 163.5km stage 6 from Mâcon to Dijon, should be another day for the sprinters, as the route is virtually flat, (The altitude gain between Mâcon and Dijon is 1,000 metres) and the fight for the green points jersey will start to take shape. The starting venue, Mâcon, is located on the River Saône and it hosts Le Tour for the seventh time. The last occasion was in 2019, when Thomas De Gendt took the win. The last Tour de France stage finish in Dijon happened in 1997.

Profile.

Map.

The Climb.

Col du Bois Clair (Cat. 4) – 1.6 kilometres at 6% – is crested after 10 kilometres.

Final Kilometres.

The riders navigate the gently rolling roads of Burgundy until the stage conclusion on the wide 800-metre straight into the prefecture of the Côte-d’Or.

What to Expect.

The flattest Tour de France stage so far, so a sprint finish in the streets of Dijon is next to certain.

Mâcon

Stage town for the 6th time

Prefecture of Saône-et-Loire (71)

Population: 34,500

MACON AND CYCLING

Macon has put itself on the Tour de France map thanks to two decisive time trials. This was notably the case in 1991, when Miguel Indurain sealed the first of his five titles by beating Gianni Bugno and Greg LeMond. In 2012, the town was the starting point for a stage to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine that enabled Thomas Voeckler to claim the penultimate of his four stage victories in the Tour de France. He repeated the feat in Bagnères-de-Luchon to take the polka-dot jersey. In 2019, it was Thomas de Gendt, a specialist in long breakaways, who won a stage from Macon in Saint-Etienne. Two Macon-born cyclists took part in the Tour de France: Joël Millard, on four occasions between 1972 and 1975, and Guy Buchaille, in 1953 and 1957.

Specialities: Mâconnais wafers, Idéal mâconnais (cake), Mâconnais wines, wines (Viré-Clessé, Saint-Véran, Pouilly-Fuissé), bouchon (chocolate with Burgundy marc), andouillette, snails and goat's cheese.

Maison mâconnaise des vins (Macon house of wine)

Founded in 1958, this house facing the Saône is both a renowned traditional restaurant serving the best Burgundy recipes and a cellar where you can discover a wide range of Macon appellations.

Dijon

Prefecture of the Côte d'Or and the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region

Stage town for the 14th time.

Population: 159,500

DIJON AND CYCLING

The Tour de France has stopped off in Dijon on thirteen instances but had not returned to the Burgundy capital for more than a quarter of a century since Mario Traversoni's victory in the city in 1997. Ten years earlier, Jean-François Bernard scored a spectacular time-trial victory ahead of Stephen Roche, which secured him third place overall behind the Irishman and Pedro Delgado in Paris. Dijon is also the birthplace of Geoffrey Bouchard, winner of the KOM classification in the Giro and the Vuelta, who has only contested the Tour de France once, in 2022. The prefecture of Côte d'Or also hosted the Criterium du Dauphiné in 2009 and Paris-Nice on three occasions in the 1930s and 1940s.

Specialities: mustard, blackcurrants, crème de cassis, kir. Burgundy snails, parsley ham, Burgundy truffles, beef bourguignon, gougères, eggs en meurettes, chicken Gaston Gérard, gingerbread and nonnettes. Burgundy wines.

Dijon mustard

As a land of vineyards, Burgundy was well placed to supply new wine and vinegar to the mustard manufacturers who increasingly settled in Dijon. This former land of charcoal burners was ideal for growing strong, pungent seeds. It wasn't long before mustard became a veritable Dijon institution, the manufacture of which was regulated by an ordinance dated August 10, 1390. In 1634, the first official statutes of the corporation of vinegar and mustard makers of the city of Dijon governed the trade. Dijon mustard is made from brown mustard seeds (Brassica juncea), vinegar, salt and citric acid. It goes well with all meats.

Oeufs en meurette