Peter Kennaugh took a massive step towards overall victory in the Tour of Austria when he extended his lead to more than a minute in the final mountain stage of the race. Going into the time trial, Sky are convinced that their captain can defend his position.

Peter Kennaugh tightened his grip on the yellow jersey after extending his lead on stage six of the Tour of Austria as Evgeni Petrov emerged to claim the win.

Kennaugh went into the final mountains stage with a 29-second advantage and the 25 year old was well marshalled throughout the 182.4km route by his Team Sky team-mates.

The fireworks came on the final climb to Villach-Dobratsch and it was Petrov (Tinkoff-Saxo) who dropped his fellow breakaway riders to solo to his first win of the season.

Despite the heavy rain, Kennaugh looked comfortable as he battled his way over three category-one climbs to take third on the stage and stretch his overall advantage to 1min 2sec heading into the stage seven time trial.

Speaking after the stage, Sports Director Dan Frost was delighted with the form the Manxman has shown so far, and from the entire team.

He said: “It was a really great day and a strong team effort all the way through.

“The guys stayed with Pete over the first two climbs and then worked really hard to get him in the right position for the finish.

“The breakaway had more than eight minutes at one point, and although some of the other teams came and did some work, it was mainly left to us to bring them back, and really nice to see Pete reward their efforts.”

Looking ahead to Saturday’s time trial, Frost is confident that Kennaugh can hold on to the jersey ahead of the final stage on Sunday.

He added: “Pete is confident for the time trial tomorrow. He extended his lead to over a minute today, so barring a major problem he should be able to defend that going into the final stage.

“All he needs to do is time trial like we know he can and he should be OK.”