Nicolas Roche defended his fourth place in stage 6 of the Tour of Britain which turned the GC on its head. The Irishman was leapfrogged by Alex Dowsett but by scoring bonus seconds in an itermeidate sprint, he passed Dylan Teuns.

Stage 6 of Tour of Britain took the field from Bath in the West to Hemstead in the East covering 205.6 kilometers in slightly undulating terrain where a breakaway trio stole the limelight and took the stage and overall lead. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicolas Roche is still fourth overall but could have lost crucial seconds.

Yesterday’s stage winner, Mathias Brändle (IAM), Tom Stewart (Genesis Zero) and Alex Dowsett (Movistar) formed today’s decisive  breakaway while several teams joined forces in the bunch to reel them back in. As the stage developed, it was no longer a question of a stage win. The overall lead was at stake as the break had a gap of three minutes with 10 kilometers to go.

The Tinkoff-Saxo riders spent the day inside the peloton while the leading rider, Michael Kwiatkowski was practically isolated in the front of the pack chasing to defend his jersey. But it was too late. Brändle took another stage win while Dowsett ripped the jersey off Kwiatkowski’s back.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicolas Roche retained fourth overall but is now 50 seconds behind Dowsett.

DS Lars Michaelsen states:

“The peloton broke in two pieces after only 10 kilometers of riding and in the first group, we had Roche, Juul, Sutherland and Boaro. It took about 50 kilometers before the second group bridged the gap. Then three riders took off and managed to work up a gap of 10 minutes before the leading team started their engines but it was too late. We had Roche, Sutherland and Juul in the chase group and we’re ready for tomorrow’s demanding and bumpy stage with two category 1 climbs inside the final 20 kilometers”.