Tour of California: Bernal wins mountainous stage 6

Team Sky's Egan Bernal won stage 6 of the 2018 Tour of California, and with it took the race lead back from Tejay van Garderen (BMC), leaving Bernal in prime position to take the overall title in Sacramento on Saturday.

Bernal's stage-winning move came, not unexpectedly, on the upper slopes of the climb of Daggett Summit, during a brief foray into Nevada. With only 10km of the stage to go, Sky teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart attacked, forcing van Garderen to react, and then Bernal hit the American with his effort, and immediately got the gap.

Van Garderen, Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Geoghegan Hart were left as the second group on the road as Bernal crested Daggett and then sped downhill before starting the final couple of kilometres up to the finish in South Lake Tahoe.

Bernal crossed the line 1:28 ahead of Yates, and 1:38 ahead of van Garderen in 7th place on the stage after the chasers were joined by another group of riders on the short descent, including Rally's Brandon McNulty and Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb).

"When I attacked with 10km to go, I was just thinking that I had to push as hard as I could," said Bernal. "I had to do my best because the team worked so hard for me today.

"It wasn’t really until the last climb, with 1.5km to go, that I thought I could maybe win the race."

Overall, Bernal now leads the race by 1:25 over van Garderen, with EF-Drapac's Dani Martinez retaining his third place, 2:14 behind Bernal.

"The team was so strong, and I’m very proud of the guys, including all the staff and the directeurs sportifs," Bernal continued. "They’ve been amazing and have done a great job for me this week. I’m just so proud to be in this team, and this victory is for them."

How it unfolded

It doesn't matter whether it's a flat stage or a mountain stage: an early break is going to go at the Tour of California, and Friday's 196.5km sixth stage between Folsom and South Lake Tahoe was no exception.

Barely 10km into the stage, a group of nine riders – Serghei Tvetcov (UnitedHealthcare), Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dimension Data's Tom-Jelte Slagter, Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale), Sean Bennett (Hagens Berman Axeon), Lawson Craddock (EF-Drapac), Trek-Segafredo's Gregory Rast and his teammate and winner of stage 3, Toms Skujins – clipped off the front, and the race was set for the day as they carved out a lead of over five minutes.

The contenders and their teams were content to keep their powder dry until the penultimate climb of the day, the 13km-long Daggett Summit, which happened to be just over the state border in Nevada, before the route came back into California for the final climb up to South Lake Tahoe.

In the meantime, Skujins was doing what he could do hoover up some 'king of the mountains' points while out in front and, despite competition from breakaway companion Huffman, the Latvian did enough to sew up the competition during the stage, with no KOM points available on Saturday's final stage in Sacramento. The final KOM points tally sees Skujins win the jersey with 34 points – just a point ahead of Huffman with 33 points, with Bernal ending the day on 26.

The breakaway splintered on Daggett Summit, where Geoghegan Hart turned the screw, putting van Garderen under pressure, before Bernal struck the killer blow and soloed to the stage win and the overall lead.

The 2018 race concludes on Saturday with a flat 143km stage around Sacramento, which should be one for the sprinters. Barring mishap, Bernal will win his first Tour of California title.