Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) claimed back-to-back victories in this year’s Tour of Britain, after beating Alex Dowsett and Thomas Stewart in a sprint finish Hemel Hempstead today.
Dowsett, Brändle and Thomas Stewart succeeded in riding clear of the peloton after 50 kilometers of racing. And, from there, the trio subsequently built up a substantial advantage of more than 5 minutes over the main field.
Despite being out front for most of the day, with a peloton that was desperately trying to reel them back in, the trio was still holding firm to a 3"20 lead over the chase – as the race headed into the final 15 kilometers.
From there, the trio succeeded in staying outside the grasp of the peloton, to form a three-up sprint finish – with the stage honors once again going to Brändle.
Meanwhile, Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) led the peloton home 1:51 later.
As a result of today’s stage, Dowsett moved up into the overall race lead with a 34 second lead over preious race leader Michael Kwiatkowski, while Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF) lies third, a further 6 seconds back.
Stage 6 Results
AUT 1 BRANDLE, Matthias (IAM CYCLING) 4:44:49 GBR 2 DOWSETT, Alex (MOVISTAR) + 1 GBR 3 STEWART, Thomas (MADISON GENESIS) ITA 4 COLBRELLI, Sonny (BARDIANI CSF) + 1:51 ITA 5 RUFFONI, Nicola (BARDIANI CSF) GBR 6 SWIFT, Ben (SKY) SUI 7 KOHLER, Martin (BMC RACING) AUS 8 HAUSSLER, Heinrich (IAM CYCLING) GER 9 ZABEL, Rick (BMC RACING) NED 10 VEELERS, Tom (GIANT-SHIMANO)
General Classification after Stage 6 GBR 1 DOWSETT, Alex (MOVISTAR) 25:07:53 POL 2 KWIATKOWSKI, Michal (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 34 ITA 3 ZARDINI, Edoardo (BARDIANI CSF) + 40 IRL 4 ROCHE, Nicolas (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 50 BEL 5 TEUNS, Dylan (BMC RACING) + 51 ESP 6 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) + 1:00 GBR 7 WIGGINS, Bradley (SKY) + 1:02 CZE 8 KONIG, Leopold (NETAPP – ENDURA) + 1:06 SUI 9 REICHENBACH, Sébastien (IAM CYCLING) AUT 10 BRANDLE, Matthias (IAM CYCLING) + 1:07
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