Tour of Britain 2013 - Stage 6
Clear skies greeted the Tour of Britain's sixth stage, a 137 kilometre ride from Sidmouth to Haytor. Today's stage marked the first ever summit finish in the Tour of Britain, and the climb up to Haytor was certainly predicted to cause some splits in the field, and pretty much decide the wearer of the gold jersey for the rest of the race.
The short stage looked encouraging for a breakaway's chances, and it was no surprise when King of the Mountains leader Angel Madrazo jumped clear after 30 kilometres. In the break with Madrazo were Kristian House (Rapha Condor-JLT), Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Liam Holohan (Madison Genesis) and Ian Wilkinson (UK Youth).
The group's lead never reached four minutes, but it was always enough for Madrazo to sweep up more points in both the mountains and sprints competitions; the Spaniard now leads both. The group split once they reached the bottom of Six Mile Hill, the day's penultimate climb, and it was only Madrazo, Holohan and Velits who remained.
The group were eventually reeled in at the bottom of Haytor, mostly due to the work of both Sky Procycling and Bardiani Valvole, who had both been working hard on the front of the peloton. Bardiani Valvole had clearly been thinking of a stage win, as it was Stefano Pirazzi, the team's noted climber, who attacked first. However, he never gained much more than twenty metres, David Lopez (Sky Procycling) was tapping out a vicious rhythm at the head of the peloton.
Dan Martin then put in a challenging dig, and was followed by Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling). Despite his effort, it was Lopez who worked hard on the front to quickly bring the move back. Martin soon made another move, but was quickly countered by Nairo Quintana, who jumped straight over the top. He also took Marcel Wyss up with him, and the duo were joined by Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani Valvole).
It was Wiggins himself who then took up the chase, quickly bringing the break back with his high tempo. He looked comfortable as he lead the front group of nine for around a kilometre, until it started exploding from within itself. Numerous moves were put in from the likes of Quintana, Martin, Pardilla, before Simon Yates of Team Great Britain jumped over the top and rode clear.
It was Yates who raised his arms in victory, a surprise to many, who had tipped the more established names such as Martin and Quintana. The 21 year old Brit obviously has a bright future ahead of him. Sir Brad looks to have all but secured the gold jersey of race leader, as we have two relatively flat days to finish up the Tour; tomorrow we head to Guildford.