Three riders broke clear from the start – Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie), Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates) – and their lead hovered between two and three minutes.

The action in the peloton was steady, with the sprint teams helping to control proceedings on the largely flat, 216km stage. An errant parasol blew into the peloton on one stretch of open road, but fortunately did not cause any damage, in one of few notable incidents.

At the intermediate sprint, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) led the sprint out from the peloton, after Backaert crossed first up the road, but mistimed his effort as Demare was first from the bunch to strengthen his hold on the maillot vert.

After the sprint, the action again calmed down, however, with all effort on catching the front three and teeing up a bunch sprint.

Kittel, at the time, was well back in the bunch of sprinters, but as Greipel and Demare looked set to contest the sprint, Kittel charged through with a perfectly-timed kick for the line.

There was more tension in the sprint after the controversy of the finale to stage four, with Katusha-Alpecin’s Marco Haller visibly unhappy with Demare’s sprinting, but there were no crashes to report this time out.

On the win, Kittel said: “It was very different to Liege. Of course, the last kilometre was a little bit freestyle but I had a good wheel.

“I was able to start from a brilliant position, a little bit behind, to see where my rivals went and yeah… I feel good at the minute.”

It proved a relatively straightforward day for Froome and Yates in the yellow and white jerseys, repectively, meanwhile as the GC remained unchanged.

Tour de France 2017: stage six – result

1) Marcel Kittel (GER) – QuickStep Floors – 5.05.34hrs
2) Arnaud Demare (FRA) – FDJ – ST
3) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Soudal
4) Alexander Kristoff (NOR) – Katusha-Alpecin
5) Nacer Bouhanni (FRA) – Cofidis
6) Dylan Groenewegen (NED) – LottoNL-Jumbo
7) Michael Matthews (AUS) – Team Sunweb
8) Dan McLay (GBR) – Fortuneo-Oscaro
9) Rudiger Selig (GER) – Bora-hansgrohe
10) John Degenkolb (GER) – Trek-Segagredo

General classification

1) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky – 23.44.33hrs
2) Geraint Thomas (GBR) – Team Sky +12″
3) Fabio Aru (ITA) – Astana +14″
4) Daniel Martin (IRL) – QuickStep Floors +25″
5) Richie Porte (AUS) – BMC Racing +39″
6) Simon Yates (GBR) – Orica-Scott +43″
7) Romain Bardet (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +47″
8) Alberto Contador (ESP) – Trek-Segafredo +52″
9) Nairo Quintana (COL) – Movistar +54″
10) Rafal Majka (POL) – Bora-hansgrohe +1.01