For the second day in a row, Sonny Colbrelli was the fastest rider in the Tour of Britain but like yesterday he had to settle for fourth. Again a three-rider break had stayed away, leading to frustration in the Bardiani camp.

With lumpy finishes, the Tour of Britain is perfectly suited to a punchy rider like Sonny Colbrelli but the Italian has not had a lot of luck. Yesterday he won the peloton's sprint behind a three-rider breakaway and today that scenario repeated itself in stage 6.

”It was the same situation as yesterday but today an escapee also took the yellow leader's jersey," sports direcotr Roberto Reverberi said. "We tried to do the best with our riders to defend Zardini’s podium because we were in the final 10km with a gap three minutes so it was too much to aim for stage victory.

"From my point of view the error was made by Kiwatkowski's Omega Pharma that allowed them to gain more than nine minutes. It was too much to bring back with so strong riders in the break and Dowsett's position in GC. Anyway, now we look forward to tomorrow's stage. It seems really demanding and with all the riders in good shape, as we saw in today's bunch sprint, we can do better."