Mark Cavendish secured his second stage win of this year's Tour de France with victory on stage six into Chateauroux.
Two days after taking his first Tour stage success in five years, Cavendish doubled up as he pipped Jasper Philipsen and Nacer Bouhanni to the line.
It was Cavendish’s 32nd career Tour stage win, and third in Chateauroux, scene of his very first Tour victory in 2008 and closes in further on Eddy Merckx's record of 34 stage wins.
Cavendish was a late addition to the team's Tour squad following an injury for Ireland's Sam Bennett, who won the Green Jersey last year.
The sprint finish meant no major changes at the top of the general classification, in which Mathieu van der Poel continues to lead by eight seconds from defending champion Tadej Pogacar, winner of Wednesday's time trial.
Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic crossed safely in the pack, but both remain almost two minutes down on Pogacar.
Dan Martin finished in the bunch finish and remains 12' 01'' down on the yellow jersey, but moves up six places to 64th overall.
Cavendish showed both his pace and his experience in the finale of the 160.6km stage from Tours, coming off the wheel of his Deceuninck-QuickStep lead-out man Michael Morkov and instead latching on to Philipsen's Alpecin-Fenix train before coming around the Belgian.
"Wow," Cavendish said. "It’s 10 years since my last win here. It’s pretty special…"
"Michael left me space on the left to go but I wanted just a split second longer in the wheels so I had to switch trains.
"But you see the guys, how much they pull. You’ve got the world champion Julian Alaphilippe just burying himself in the last kilometres, it’s something special. I’m buzzing now."
Friday's seventh stage, the longest in this year's race, is an undulating 249.1-km ride between Vierzon and Le Creusot before the riders turn their focus to the mountains on Saturday.
