Daniel Martin made a brave attack on the second climb of the Mûr-de-Bretagne to take a solo victory in Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de France.
Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de France was a 181km ride from the coastal town of Brest to the Mûr-de-Bretagne, making two passes over what the locals call the “Breton Alpe d’Huez”. A stage sure to attract the best efforts of the climbers and GC contenders.
After a 10km neutral section, the race kicked off in earnest and quickly saw an escape by Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo-Samsic), Damien Gaudin and Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie), Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). While those five went out a quickly built a lead, the peloton granted Groupama-FDJ’s Olivier Le Gac a brief escape at km 11 to pass in front of his family home in Plouvien.
The breakaway enjoyed a 5 minute lead by km 20. While they enjoyed a healthy lead, Quick Step was hammering the peloton and had broken it into three groups.
After some excitement, the peloton came back together with about 75km of racing remaining. The leaders still enjoyed at least a two minute lead.
Pichon took the intermediate sprint at km 135, but that prompted an immediate attack by Damien Gaudin. He opened up a lead of 10 seconds over his former break compatriots.
A crash in the bunch took down Lampaert, Fuglsang and Molard, and Dimension Data seized the reins steps things up. Back at the front, the leader caught and passed Gaudin, leaving Smith, Grellier, Turgis and Pichon with a 1 minute lead with a little over 20km to go.
As the breakaway started to flag, it was Grellier who went on the attack. While he may of been thinking that he could go solo over the Mûr-de-Bretagne, it was too late, as he could feel the hot breath of the peloton on the back of his neck. Alas, he is caught with less than 1km to the top and the points go instead to Tom Skujins. Jack Bauer (Mitchelton-SCOTT) took the second place points, then flew off on a solo attack.
In the final kilometers, Bauer was laying down the watts, holding the peloton off by as much as 20 seconds, but with 8km to go, the peloton, led by BORA-hansgrohe, moved up the pace.
The catch took place, and then it was Team Sky and Dimension Data pushing the pace along with BORA. Quick Step and BMC was in there as well.
With a little over 1km to go, Daniel Martin went on the attack. Pierre Latour (Ag2R-La Mondiale) chased furiously, but could not catch him as Martin goes over the line solo.
2018 Tour de France Stage 6 Brief Results:
- Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) at 4h13’43”
- Pierre Latour (Ag2R – La Mondiale) at 1″
- Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) at 3″
- Julien Alaphillipe (Quick Step) s.t.
- Rafal Majka (BORA-hansgrohe) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 6:
- Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC Racing Team 22h35’46”
- Geraint Thomas (GBR) Team Sky at 3″
- Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at 5″
- Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) Quick-Step Floors at 6″
- Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Quick-Step Floors at 12″
- Bob Jungels (LUX) Quick-Step Floors at 18″
- Rigoberto Urán (COL) Team EF Education First – Drapac p/b Cannondale at 45″
- Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Movistar Team at 51″
- Rafal Majka (POL) BORA-hansgrohe at 52″
- Jakob Fuglsang – Astana at 53″
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