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Alex Dowsett takes yellow jersey in Tour of Britain Alex Dowsett takes yellow jersey in Tour of Britain
(about 1 hour later)
Movistar’s Alex Dowsett took the race lead of the Tour of Britain as Matthias Brandle collected his second consecutive stage victory in another breakaway. Better known for its legendary Magic Roundabout and its connection with Kodak, Hemel Hempstead is not readily associated with sporting drama. But it has made a massive impression on this year’s Tour of Britain. The eight-day race was turned upside down in Hemel on Friday after a long-range attack from Alex Dowsett put the Essex time trial specialist in yellow, with the overnight leader Michal Kwiatkowski and Sir Bradley Wiggins and their respective teams in pieces.
The Essex-born Dowsett began stage six 1 minute 25 seconds behind Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Michal Kwiatkowski in the general classification but got himself in the break along with IAM Cycling’s Brandle and Tom Stewart of Madison Genesis, and together they entirely changed the shape of the Tour. Dowsett attacked early on the 128-mile stage from Bath, after an aggressive start to the stage left the peloton in two groups, and he took with him the previous day’s stage winner Matthias Brändle, and Tom Stewart of the British team Madison-Genesis. "I knew it was a headwind all day so I thought that [the peloton] would let us out then reel us back," said Dowsett. "I was a bit hacked off at first as I thought I would leave a lot of energy on the road before the time trial on Sunday."
Capitalising on the time-trialling skills of both Brandle and Dowsett, they built a lead of more than nine minutes on the road, and the peloton rarely looked capable of bringing them back despite some frantic efforts from Omega Pharma-Quick Step in the closing stages of the challenging 205.6km (123-mile) run from Bath to Hemel Hempstead. When the lead reached nine minutes midway through the stage, Dowsett began to believe, and the trio dug in hard, to such good effect that he now has a 34sec lead on Kwiatkowski, with the other time trial expert Wiggins at 1min 2sec after the peloton – reduced to 58 in number by the chase – sprinted in 1min 52sec after Brändle had taken the stage win. As is common in such situations, the IAM rider and Dowsett reached an agreement early on that the victory would be his if they made it to the finish, given that Dowsett was set to take yellow. "He gave it everything, I couldn’t have done it without him," Dowsett said.
Dowsett showed no interest in contesting Brandle for the stage victory on the final straight, knowing his job was done as he took a 34-second lead in the overall standings. The battle through the North Wessex Downs and Chilterns was intense, as would be expected, given that Brändle and Dowsett are in flying form, and both are top-class time triallists. Chinnor and Kop Hills are well known to local club cyclists, and together with a bevy of smaller climbs, they eventually proved too much for Sky – who must be bitterly regretting the crash that eliminated Ian Stannard in Liverpool - and Omega-Pharma Quickstep.
It was just reward for a rider who put a huge effort into a breakaway on stage four, only to have all his hard work undone by a double puncture. Sky had to call upon their sprinter Ben Swift to put in long spells at the front in the final kilometres, where Mark Cavendish also rode himself into the ground. It is all but unheard of for a rider in the yellow jersey to be seen dragging the peloton, but after his team-mates had given their all on the drag out of Berkhamsted with five miles remaining, Kwiatkowski himself had no option but to join the pursuit, to no avail.
“It was the hardest day of my life,” Dowsett said on ITV4. “I just thought they were letting us out to bring us back and I was a bit hacked off with myself because I thought I could have a good time trial but I was leaving a lot out on the road and I might have given too much. The initiative shown by Dowsett and company leaves the race finely poised before Saturday’s leg over the South Downs into Brighton, which includes two tough hills close to the finish. Dowsett, the Commonwealth Games time trial champion, is a favourite for Sunday’s final-day test in London, meaning that both Kwiatkowski and Wiggins will have no option but to attack him and attempt to gain time and win bonuses at the finish and in the intermediate sprints.
“Once the gap went up to seven minutes I thought, that’s quite big, then it was eight, nine, and I really started digging in. If the Essex rider and his Spanish team mates at the Movistar team can keep yellow until Sunday, it will make up for the frustration he felt when he was left out of their team for the Tour de France at the last minute. And it will make up for the injustice he understandably felt was visited on him during the stage from Worcester to Bristol on Wednesday.
“I spoke to Matthias and we made an agreement he would go for the stage because I knew there was a good chance I would take yellow and it was a risk I was willing to take. There, he had attacked from the gun and looked set to remain in front as far as the finish until he suffered simultaneous punctures to his front and rear tyres. What followed was controversial, as the race commissaires ruled that he could not receive any assistance from his support car in regaining contact with the break, thus ending his chances.
“He gave me everything. I couldn’t have done it without him and Tom too from Madison Genesis. He probably had the hardest day of his life, he gave all he could and I’m grateful to him.” The rules on this kind of help are opaque, as it is common for riders to be seen being paced at high speed back to the peloton – for example Mark Cavendish in the first stage in Liverpool – but the commissaires tend to be more strict when a rider is in an escape, or when the race is considered to be in full swing. However, Dowsett’s beef was not about the ruling per se, but because he felt that the rules were not being applied consistently. However, having got angry, he has now more than got even.
The break’s lead reached 9min 15sec with a little over 87km to go before the peloton stepped up the chase. Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Team Sky were prominent on the front, but they had left themselves too much to do.
The gap dipped under five minutes with 33km to go, but it was not coming down quickly enough and there was a lull in the chase as teams began to look at each other. As they moved inside the final 10km it was Kwiatkowski on the front, desperate to keep his yellow jersey, but it would prove to be in vain.
Dowsett now leads Kwiatkowski by 34sec, with the Italian Eduardo Zardini (Bardiani) 40sec behind in third and Tinkoff-Saxo’s Nicholas Roche 50sec back in fourth.
The defending champion Sir Bradley Wiggins had been focused on keeping himself there or thereabouts until the final time trial on Sunday, but while Sky took the odd turn on the front, they were barely seen towards the end of the day and Dowsett’s move leaves Wiggins with much work to do on Saturday’s 226.5km run from Camberley to Brighton, sitting 62sec down in seventh place.