Team Sky had two interests to defend in today's stage of the Tour of Britain as they both wanted to win the stage with Ben Swift and defend Bradley Wiggins' chances in the GC. However, the British team started to chase too late and had to sacrifice Swift to keep the GC options alive.

Ben Swift sprinted to sixth and Bradley Wiggins dropped a place to seventh at the Tour of Britain following an eventful sixth stage.

A collective miscalculation from the peloton saw the day’s breakaway prevail for the second stage in a row, with the result elevating Alex Dowsett into the race lead.

The Brit (Movistar) was part of a three-man move which went clear and caused the peloton to scramble on the run into Hemel Hempstead. After their advantage hit over nine minutes, the trio held on and made good their escape, with Matthias Brandle (IAM Cycling) taking a second consecutive stage victory.

Dowsett finished second ahead of Tom Stewart (Madison Genesis) on the day, but crucially, he crossed the line one minute and 50 seconds ahead of the chasing peloton. Swift sprinted to third in the group, enough to move him back into the lead of the points classification with three stages remaining.

Wiggins and David Lopez were also present in the main peloton but were leapfrogged by Dowsett in the standings. The pair now sit seventh and eighth respectively, 1:02 and 1:04 back on the yellow jersey.

During a frantic first hour of racing Wiggins looked to take time back and jumped clear of the peloton to bag two bonus seconds in Devizes. Overnight leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) had the same idea and edged the intermediate sprint, but later on the Pole was forced to hit the front himself as the peloton struggled to close the gap.

Bernhard Eisel and Swift contributed to the chase but after the dust settled it was Dowsett who held a 34-second lead.

After stepping off the podium Swift admitted it had been a much tougher day than expected as he was thrust into chasing down the break.

"It was such a tough stage," he admitted. "The first hour was full gas up the steep climb and it just kept going. Normally when you've got three guys in the break it's easy to control but when you've got Alex Dowsett, Brandle and Tom Stewart they are going to commit to each other. I don't know why it went out over nine minutes and it made it hard for everyone.

"Bernie again did a great job and I knew that I had to commit and ride. It was more about the GC and trying to bring the break back. That's what we came here for. For me it was a good workout and I still managed to have a decent sprint at the end with tired legs. It's nice to be in the jersey and I'll try and keep it to the end, but I'd love to get up there for a stage win."