Tour of Britain: Poels wins stage 6

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Wout Poels (Team Sky) won his third-ever Tour of Britain stage, distancing everyone else to win alone atop Haytor on stage 6. The victory is Poels' second consecutive queen stage victory after taking victory on Hartside Fell in last year's race.

Rohan Dennis (BMC) and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) had stayed with Poels for some time but had no answer when the Dutch rider pushed on with just over a kilometre to go.

Race leader Julian Vermote (Etixx-QuickStep) cracked early on the final climb and lost almost two minutes by the time he hit the top, handing the yellow jersey to Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data).

After catching the last rider from the day’s break with 10 kilometres remaining, the general classification teams moved to the fore with Team Sky, Cannondale-Drapac and BMC all present at the front of the peloton. Dennis broke the stalemate as the race approached the final ascent to Haytor. The Australian got a few metres before being joined by Poels and Dumoulin, and then Gorka Izagirre (Movistar). Dennis' injection of pace put the yellow jersey Vermote immediately in trouble but he would get no help from his teammates who looked to set up Dan Martin for the victory.

Cummings bridged the gap to the leaders along with Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) only to be dropped when Dumoulin put on a bit effort on the front. Poels was able to keep with his compatriot and made his own move with 1.5 kilometres to go. Dennis and Dumoulin began to close on him in the final 500 metres, but he had already done enough to secure himself a another stage win at the Tour of Britain.

"It's the third one [at the Tour of Britain] already and sixth of the season. It's going really good this season. It's always nice to win in the Tour of Britain. It's a really nice race and the crowds are great," said Poels. "We took control a little bit at the end and we wanted to close the gap to go for the stage win with. Yogi [Ian Stannard] and Danny did a really good job."

An exhausted looking Cummings hauled himself over the line 20 seconds back to ensure he took the race lead. Dumoulin moved up to second at 49 seconds back with Dennis in third at 51 seconds with a key time trial to come on Saturday.

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How it happened

Rain once again fell on the riders as they prepared to depart for stage in Sidmouth. Three climbs lay ahead, as the peloton made it through the Devon countryside on the race's queen stage, before the summit finish on Haytor. The day would begin with kilometre zero coming midway up an unclassified ascent.

Unlike many of the earlier stages, the breakaway was allowed to go very early on as the main contenders saved their legs for later in the day. Jasper Bovenhuis (An Post Chain Reaction), Miguel Angel Benito (Caja Rural), Thomas Stewart (Madison Genisis) and Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) made their escape within the first three kilometres.

By the time they hit the top of the first classified climb at just under 10km, the four leaders already had more than two minutes or an advantage. Benito's day was almost scuppered by an early puncture but he was able to get back to the leaders with relative ease.

Etixx-QuickStep managed the pace for much of the day, with some help from Dimension Data, and refused to allow the four escapees much breathing space and the gap maxed out at 3:20.

Bovenhuis was only interested in one thing, increasing his lead in the sprints competition and he made victory in that classification and almost certainty after mopping up the points at the first two intermediate sprints. Happy with his efforts, he sat up with more than 30 kilometres to go and was dragged back to the peloton.

The crescendo of the stage approaching, Team Sky moved to the front of the peloton and began making serious inroads into the remaining escapees. As the gap closed to a minute, Visconti pushed on and immediately dropped his two companions. Despite his efforts, his move was short lived and he was caught with 10 kilometres still to run.

There was a brief lull in the action but not in the pace as the peloton quickly reduced in numbers under the combined efforts of the general classification teams. Dennis was the first to go with four kilometres remaining with Dumoulin and Poels hot on his heels. Izagirre followed later, making the juncture after a brief solo chase.

Vermote began struggling almost immediately but Etixx-QuickStep drove on, reconciling themselves to the knowledge that they would certainly lose yellow. Tony Martin kept the four leaders close but it wasn't Etixx that made it over but Cummings and Gallopin. They had barely had time to catch their breath with Dumoulin kicking again with two kilometres to go.

Poels bided his time a little bit longer before making his move with 1.5 to the line. He held on to beat Dennis by just six seconds.

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