Mixed fortunes for Ireland's Gillespie, Griffin on Tour de France | Video

The vibes have been a bit different for Lara Gillespie and Mia Griffin at the Tour de France but both at still in the game as the big show is about to begin

There have been contrasting fortunes for the Irish riders on the Tour de France, with Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) celebrating a stage win on yesterday's stage 6 for her French team mate, Maeva Squiban, and Irish champion Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy) nursing some crash damage.

However, Griffin shrugged off those injuries as superficial, saying her crash would have no adverse impact on her efforts to get through this race. And all three Irish riders - including Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal) - are very much shaping up as the first Irish women to finish the Tour de France, not just start it.

"I hit the deck yesterday in the crash where (Elisa) Balsamo came down," Griffin told stickybottle of her stage 5 incident, early in the day, that took former world champion Balsamo (Lidl Trek) out of the race.

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"It was a pretty fast crash but I came out of it relatively unscatched," added Griffin, saying a cut up elbow was the extent of her difficulties despite a dramatic looking bloodied arm by the end of the stage. "It's nothing mad, it won't affect me in terms of finishing the Tour."

Griffin added that yesterday's stage 6 - some 123km from Clermont-Ferrand to Ambert - was "really hard" as it took a long time for the grupetto to form on a course with the first serious climbs of the race.

"I think everybody was waiting for Lorena (Wiebes) to drop before we eventually dropped but then it was a nice group we were in. And the next few days are really hard days as well, no more sprint days, sadly."

After hectic attacking in the early phase of the race yesterday, once the cat 1 ascent began just after the halfway point, the field split. The general classification riders went forward, with Griffin and the other non-climbers getting organised into a group behind.

The first big selection of the stage was made on the Col du Béal, the first cat 1 climb of the Tour, with the field fracturing and the Irish riders among those getting into a group to ride to the finish.

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Most of the riders - including points classification leader Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx Protime) - was in the same boat at that point, with the 10km ascent doing some serious damage. By the top of the climb, even stage 1 winner and former yellow jersey Marianne Vos (Visma Lease a Bike) was being dropped by the remains of the peloton, which was closing in on the early breakaway.

The field then moved onto the fourth and final climb of the day - the 6.4km Col du Chanser - by which time there had been a regrouping of sorts, with the remains of the bunch numbering about 25-30 riders, though that would be shortlived.

And with 3km to go to the top of that ascent, and 32km remaining to the finish in Ambert, it was French rider Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) who struck out with an attack. The group containing Wiebes and the Irish trio were by now just over seven minutes back.

The solo leader had one minute at the top of the climb. And when the small peloton reached the bonus seconds sprint with 11km to go, they were 1:25 down on the flying Squiban. And that's the way it stayed to the finish; more or less stalemate in the general classification group, with the lone attacker securing a fantastic victory.

On the line she was 1:09 clear of 2nd place finisher Juliette Labous (FDJ-SUEZ). Just four seconds later, race leader Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal Team) took the sprint for 3rd place, at the head of a group that was reduced to just 15 riders.

Mia Griffin (Roland Le Dévoluy) finished 104th, at 22:07, with Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) in 110th at 22:15 and Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal) in 123rd at 29:55.

Today's stage 7 takes the riders 159.7km from Bourg-en-Bresse to Chambéry, featuring 2,000m of elevation gain. There is a 20km almost continuous stretch of climbing - the Côte de Berland followed immediately by the Col du Granier - before a 17.5km descent to the finish.

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