Welcome to live coverage of stage six of the Tour de France where severe crosswinds could be a factor as the peloton take on the exposed 176.5km from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier.

Christien Vande Velde also crashed badly yesterday, coming down hard on the left-hand side of the road on the mini-pile up than split the peloton on the Col de la Gineste 15km from the finish. The American landed heavily, and his bike was thrown about 10m through the air. He had his ankle run over by a Cofidis rider, but more seriously he aggravated an old collarbone injury (loosening a metal screw), hurt his back and suffered a blood clot to the neck. He's in pain, but continues - for now.

Haimer Zubeldia was in the wars yesterday too. The Spaniard did not go down in either of the big crashes towards the end of the stage, but he did have a spill with German team-mate Andreas Kloden half-way through the long stage through Provence. The RadioShack veteran actually fractured a small bone in his wrist - although he completed the stage and has taken to the start today.

Spaniard Maté rides alone with about two minutes over the peloton now - he's in for a long day if he thinks he can do this alone, but no one seems crazy enough to join him just yet. You'd expect a chase group to form soon, mind.

ATTACK: Luis Angel Mate of Cofidis has soloed off the front of the peloton. No one seems too interested in joining him just yet...

C'est parti! Stage 6 of the 2013 Tour de France is under way... Objective: get to Montpellier while avoiding any crashes or splits in the peloton on a windy day in the Languedoc region of southern France.

Another rider not to start today was Frenchman Maxime Bouet (Ag2R-La Mondiale) who broke his wrist in that crash in the final straight yesterday. So we're down to 193 riders after 4 withdrawals and one disqualification (Ted King).

The riders are currently riding through the neutral zone ahead of today's stage. The sun is out and it's a hot day, with a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. The wind isn't too bad at the moment - just 10kmh - but it is tipped to get quite blustery later closer to the coast.

The big news today is the withdrawal of Belgian GC hope Jurgen van den Broeck, who crashed heavily in that big pile-up towards the end of yesterday's stage. The Lotto Belisol rider hurt his knee and a built up of fluid inside the knee this morning suggests an internal injury, and van den Broeck was unable to get on his bike in Aix-en-Provence this morning.

Cavendish's win yesterday saw the British sprinter rise to second place in the green jersey points classification, which is still being led by Sagan. The Slovak has 111 points with Cavendish now on 76 points alongside the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff of Katusha. There will be more points up for grabs today, with the finish likely to result in a bunch sprint.

Simon Gerrans leads team-mates Daryl Impey and Michael Albasini on GC, with all three GreenEdge men level on time at the top. Sitting one second back are OPQS pair Michal Kwiatkowski and Sylvain Chavanel - and both riders may target the maillot jaune over the next few days before the Pyrenees. Sky's Chris Froome is poised in seventh place at three seconds, while Saxo-Tinkoff's Alberto Contador is six seconds further back in 12th place.

Yesterday there were no changes in the overall standings as Britain's Mark Cavendish benefited from a some superb team-work by Omega Pharma-Quick Step to win his first stage of the race - and the 24th Tour victory of his career. The Manxman comfortably soared past Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to triumph in Marseille, with Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) cutting a disconsolate figure as he came home in fourth.