Daniel Martin has won the sixth stage of the Tour de France for UAE Team Emirates after a gruelling finish on the Mur de Bretagne.
Martin pulled away with 1km to go and held off Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third.
“I was a bit nervous because of the headwind,” Martin said afterwards. “Maybe it was adrenaline but I felt really good yesterday and didn’t quite get a chance to have a go but it happened today. I was really relaxed and was looking forward to having a crack.
“It makes this Tour de France a success for us already and anything else is a bonus now.”
Overnight leader Greg van Avermaet (BMC) finished just three seconds behind in the main peloton to retain the yellow jersey ahead of Friday’s seventh stage.
Van Avermaet leads Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) by three seconds in the overall standings, with Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step) at five and six seconds respectively.
Chris Froome of Team Sky lost eight seconds to his key rivals, nut he was not alone. AG2R’s Romain Bardet cracked in the heat of the final ascent and lost 31secs, while fellow contender Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) lost nearly a minute after suffering a mechanical problem.
Tour de France 2018 – stage 6 results (Brest – Mûr de Bretagne Guerlédan):
| 1 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | 4:13:43 |
| 2 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01” |
| 3 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +03” |
| 4 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 5 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 6 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 7 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 8 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 9 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 10 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 11 | Richie Porte (BMC) | ,, |
| 12 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | ,, |
| 13 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | ,, |
| 14 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 15 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | ,, |
| 16 | Mikel Landa (Movistar) | ,, |
| 17 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | +06” |
| 18 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | +08” |
| 19 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) | +11” |
| 20 | Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) | +12” |
General classification after stage 6:
| 1 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | 22:35:46 |
| 2 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | +03” |
| 3 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | +05” |
| 4 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | +06” |
| 5 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | +12” |
| 6 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +18” |
| 7 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) | +45” |
| 8 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +51′ |
| 9 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +52” |
| 10 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +53” |
| 11 | Richie Porte (BMC) | ,, |
| 12 | Mikel Landa (Movistar) | +55” |
| 13 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01’02” |
| 14 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 15 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +01’03” |
| 16 | Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 17 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) | +01’08” |
| 18 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +01’17” |
| 19 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’18” |
| 20 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +01’26” |
