VIRE NORMANDIE, France — Irish rider Ben Healy won a hilly sixth stage of the Tour de France after a long solo breakaway on Thursday and Mathieu van der Poel took back the yellow jersey from defending champion Tadej Pogačar by one second.
American rider Quinn Simmons finished 2 minutes, 44 seconds behind Healy in second place and Australian Michael Storer was 2:51 back in third spot.
Van der Poel finished eighth, and Pogačar was a little further back in ninth.
Stage 6 took riders over 201.5 kilometers (125 miles) from Bayeux to Vire Normandie, featuring six minor climbs before a sharp uphill finish with a 10% gradient.
The Slovenian star accelerated at the end of the stage but could not quite do enough to stop the yellow jersey going to Van der Poel, who is not considered a race contender.
Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard finished 10th, just behind Pogačar, and is fifth overall.
The route favored all-rounders and an experienced-looking eight-rider breakaway, including Stage 2 winner Van der Poel and Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates, pulled away from the yellow jersey group around three-time Tour winner Pogačar.
Riding through rolling countryside, they opened up a four-minute lead with 40 kilometers to go, which is when Healy decided to go for the stage win and pulled away from his rivals, who could not follow.
