🚴 Tour de France 2018 | Stage 6 | Dan Martin takes brilliant uphill victory at Mûr de Bretagne as Bardet & Dumoulin lose time!

UAE Team Emirates' Dan Martin attacked with over 1km to ride, taking victory of Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de France, narrowly holding onto the lead as Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) gave it everything to try and catch him. The big talking point of the day, however, is two top contenders for the GC in Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) & Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) lost time due to unfortunate mechanicals in the run-in.

---

---

How did the action unfold?

---

Stage 6 saw another undulating course, and with the battle for the KOM being contested almost entirely by Wanty-Groupe Gobert, Direct Energie, Cofidis & Trek-Segafredo, we saw Damien Gaudin & Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie), Anthony Turgis (Cofidis), Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Polkadot-yielding Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Fortuneo-Samsic's local rider, Laurent Pichon, taking to the break.

The breakaway worked very well in the early stages and amassed a lead of over 6 minutes as a much more 'relaxed' peloton were visibly saving energy for the task to come.

Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) sweeped up the two KOM points on offer atop of the fourth category climb of Côte de Ploudiry after 44km, and there was little action until 102km to go where the roads changed direction and Quick-Step Floors came to the fore. Crosswinds meant that LottoNL-Jumbo's GC man Primoz Roglic was caught in a chasing group and started to lose time on his GC rivals within the peloton. At one point he was about 2 minutes behind, but a big team effort from LottoNL-Jumbo allowed him to regain contact with 74km to go.

Roglic's situation then went from bad to worse as he crashed with 70km to go, failing to negotiate a central reservation. The talented Slovenian was again forced to do some chasing but, again, also managed to regain contact.

From here on out the peloton settled down, slowly making time gains on the breakaway in front but not trying to cause any splits within the bunch. With 40km to go, the now lone breakaway rider in Gaudin was caught and it was very obvious that this was going to be a day for Martin, Yates or Alaphilippe.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) was also involved in drama as he was brought down in a crash with 19km remaining, struggling to get back onto the peloton before the ascent of the climb in Mûr de Bretagne. The climb was won by Toms Skujins, who played it very well to sweep up the maximum KOM points at the top.

Jack Bauer (Mitchelton-Scott) launched an attack after pretending to sprint for second on the KOM line, and continued to press on as Skujins rejoined the peloton. The pace was too high, however, and Jack Bauer was soon caught by the peloton with Tom Dumoulin also suffering a mechanical shortly after. Romain Bardet also punctured but was able to regain contact.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) repeated Egan Bernal's efforts from yesterday and put in a huge shift at the front of the peloton, pushing the bunch on and pushing Tom Dumoulin's deficit back up to 30 seconds. Team Sunweb then knew he was in real trouble so sent all their riders back down to him (Niclas Arndt looked to be in good contention for the stage victory so will be very annoyed no doubt).

Richie Porte (Team BMC) was the first to attack but Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) counter-attacked to open a big gap. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was unfortunately placed as the front rider of the main bunch after the attacks and as such had to press on, but his energy was ultimately wasted bridging the riders behind him back up to Porte. Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) attacked from the main bunch and looked as if he would overtake Martin, but he kicked again and took the stage victory ahead of the Frenchman!

---

Was my prediction correct?

---

✔️ Predictions Accuracy - 3/6 - 50%

I knew it would be Yates or Martin, but thought Yates would take it with Martin not having the freshest of legs between the two.

My Prediction;

Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) / Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates)

The route and profile certainly suits a rider like Yates or Martin. Adam Yates has trained up this climb and having ridden it on multiple occasions is very accustomed to what it takes. With Dan Martin having pushed alongside Alaphilippe and Gilbert on yesterday's stage, I'm not sure he'll have the legs to beat Yates.

Either rider will want to make their mark on the GC and with bigger climbs to come, big time gaps ahead of the better climbers within the GC are a must. Expect to see a very entertaining finale, and with both Yates and Martin gunning for the stage victory.

---

Stage 6 Results;

1 ) Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates | IRL) 4:13:43
2 ) Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale | FRA) + 1s
3 ) Alejandro Valverde (Movistar | ESP) + 3s
4 ) Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors | FRA)
5 ) Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe | POL)
6 ) Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott | GBR)
7 ) Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo | NED)
8 ) Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe | SVK)
9 ) Geraint Thomas (Team Sky | GBR)
10 ) Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo | SLO)

---

GC Standings after Stage 6;

1 ) Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing | BEL) 22:35:46
2 ) Geraint Thomas (Team Sky | GBR) + 0:00:03
3 ) Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing | USA) + 0:00:05
4 ) Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors | FRA) + 0:00:06
5 ) Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors | BEL) + 0:00:12
6 ) Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors | LUX) + 0:00:18
7 ) Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac | COL) + 0:00:45
8 ) Alejandro Valverde (Movistar | ESP) + 0:00:51
9 ) Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe | POL) + 0:00:52
10 ) Jakob Fuglsang (Astana | DEN) + 0:00:53

---

Be sure to follow me for tomorrow's analysis!