Britain’s Alex Dowsett produced a remarkable performance on stage six of the 2014 Friends Life Tour of Britain, taking the yellow jersey and second on the stage into Hemel Hempstead.
The Commonwealth Games time trial gold medallist began the day one minute and 25 seconds adrift of the overall lead but broke away early with stage five winner Matthias Brandle and Madison Genesis’ Tom Stewart.
The trio went on to build a lead of over nine minutes before surviving a breakneck chase in the final kilometres leaving Dowsett 34 seconds ahead of the morning’s leader, Michal Kwiatkowski.
The sixth stage of the 2014 edition saw 205-kilometres of racing heading due east from historic Bath to Hemel Hempstead.
Three categorised climbs punctuated the tail end of the route; the second category ascent at Chinnor Hill after 161-kilometres followed by the climb of the similarly categorised Kop Hill ten kilometres later, while the final third category hurdle came at Nashleigh within 15-kilometres of the stage finish.
And with three primes at Devises, Blewberry and Princes Risborough, there were plenty of points available for the sprinters too.
The stage began with drama from the off, the peloton splitting in two not long after the race de-neutralised, with the gap going out to over two minutes as the wind played its part.
Many of the general classification riders found themselves on the right side of the split, notably Sir Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), race leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicholas Roche.
With Wiggins 27 seconds down on the young Pole after stage five, it was clear that the 2013 champion wasn’t lying down, battling for the time bonuses at the first sprint in Devizes. However, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider prevailed, taking first, with Wiggins and Roche behind.
The split peloton soon reformed but by then attention had turned to the head of the race as Alex Dowsett (Movistar) and Tom Stewart (Madison Genesis) were joined by stage five winner Matthias Brandle (IAM Cycling), the trio breaking away and building a lead that stretched to nine minutes at its apogee.
With 60 kilometres to go the break were still over eight minutes ahead, and with Dowsett only one minute and 25 seconds behind on general classification, the chase was on in earnest, with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Team Sky and Garmin Sharp at the head of the chase, stringing out the peloton.
Dowsett took maximum points at the second sprint in Blewberry but more importantly collected time bonuses to further help his general classification cause.
As the race hit Chinnor Hill with 45 kilometres to go, the lead had reduced to just over six minutes, but the combined time trialling prowess of Dowsett and Brandle kept the day’s outcome very much the balance.
With gritted teeth Dowsett crested the climb of Chinnor Hill and the trio headed through the final sprint in Princes Risborough, Dowsett collecting more precious seconds in time bonuses.
At the foot of Kop Hill at 35 kilometres to go the break still held a five minute advantage, while behind the peloton was a thin, snaking line of over 100 riders, those drilling the pace its head beginning to see their overall lead slipping away.
Once again, Dowsett summited Kop Hill at the head of the trio and with just the third category climb of Nashleigh between them and the finish, the break still had over four-and-half-minutes advantage.
Onto the final climb of the day at Nashleigh and Dowsett’s group still had over three minutes on a panicked peloton, with just the lumpy 15-kilometre run into Hemel to complete.
Through Berkhamsted with less than ten kilometres to go and Dowsett was still the virtual leader on the road, while behind the exhausted Team Sky and Omega Pharma Quick Step squads got little help until Bardiani CSF hit the front and provided some much needed impetus, the yellow jersey himself hitting the front in a desperate attempt to retain his lead.
But it was too little, too late, Dowsett, Brandle and Stewart arrived onto the finish straight in Hemel Hempstead with Brandle taking his second consecutive stage win, Dowsett taking second place and beginning an anxious wait for the peloton to cross the line.
But the jersey was Dowsett’s, the peloton one minute and 50 seconds down, the Briton pulling off a remarkable feat and making up for the bitter disappointment of stage four, ending the day 34 seconds ahead of Kwiatkowski and over a minute ahead of Sir Bradley Wiggins.
Following the race Dowsett spoke to ITV Sport.
"That was the hardest day of my life. I got into the break and I knew it would be a headwind all day so kind of just thought it would be 'let us out, bring us back' and that would be that.
"But when the gap went up to seven minutes I thought, 'that's quite big', then it went eight minutes, nine minutes, and then that's when I really started digging in.
"I made an agreement with Matthias (Brandle) that he'd win the stage because there was a good chance I'd take the yellow - it was a risk I was willing to take and he gave me everything there.
"I couldn't have done it without him. Tom from Madison probably had one of the hardest days of his life. He gave everything he could and I'm grateful to him and Roger in the car as well.
When asked about his chances of taking the lead all the way to London, Dowsett was pragmatic.
"I'll give it everything I've got. Kwiatkowsi - Ditching Beacon tomorrow. Kwiatkowski's going like a train so I'm just going to have to rest up as much as I can and give it my all tomorrow.
"It's far from over but I'm in a nice position for it."
Britain’s Mark McNally ensured he remained in the Skoda king of the mountains jersey, jumping from the peloton to collect valuable points on the day’s three climbs.
Great Britain Cycling Team’s Tao Geoghegan-Hart had another impressive day of racing, the 19-year-old, who rides for the American Bissell Development Squad once again finishing in the peloton to maintain a top twenty position on general classification.
Impressive too was Velosure-Giordana RT’s Steve Lampier, the domestic squad rider mixing it with the World Tour riders, ending the day in 16th overall.
Fellow Brit’s Sam Harrison and Jon Mould were not so lucky, the NFTO Racing pair forced to abandon during the morning.
Stage seven takes riders 226.5 kilometres from Camberley to Brighton. Follow live updates from every stage of the Tour of Britain on the British Cycling website.
Results
Stage six
General classification after stage six
