Martin wins Tour de France stage 6

– Ireland’s Dan Martin claimed victory on the sixth stage of the Tour de France with a brutal attack in an uphill finish as several top riders lost time yesterday.

The Team UAE Emirates rider jumped away from the main pack inside the final kilometre and never looked back, beating France’s Pierre Latour by one second and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde by three seconds.

Martin came home second the last time a Tour stage ended in Mur de Bretagne and he admitted he had been obsessed about winning here this time. “I thought about it (his second place in 2015) all day. It was good to finish second back then but this time I was coming for victory,” he said.

Belgian Greg van Avermaet hung on for dear life on the 2km climb at an average gradient of 6.9 percent to retain the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

While Australian Richie Porte, Italian Vincenzo Nibali and Britain’s Geraint Thomas all crossed the line three seconds off the pace after the 181km ride from Brest, defending champion Chris Froome was five seconds further back.

Rigoberto Uran was 11 seconds behind Martin but it was worse for Frenchman Romain Bardet, who ended 31 seconds off the pace after having to swap bikes with a team mate following a mechanical issue just before the last climb. – Reuters

Mur De Bretagne