There was plenty for the home crowd to cheer on day six of the Tour of Britain as Simon Yates secured the stage victory and Sir Bradley Wiggins did enough to hold on to his overall lead.
Heading into the finish on Haytor all eyes were on London 2012 time trial gold medallist Wiggins as he was leading the pack with 2km left to go.
But after coming under numerous attacks it was Great Britain’s Yates, who claimed points race gold at the World Track Championships in Minsk in February, who came through to take victory in 3:23.43 hours.
Despite losing the lead Wiggins came home just seven seconds later to retain his general classification lead and sits 32 seconds ahead of Martin Elmiger with just two stages left.
However after claiming a famous victory, that sees him move up to second in the points classification and third overall, there was no taking the day away from 21-year-old Yates.
“It’s one of my best victories – to win a stage of my national tour. With the company that was there. Yeah, you can’t get much better,” Yates said.
“I just hoped for a good position as I hit the climb and people just started to fall away. Dan Martin and Alvaro Quintana started to attack and slowly it started to whittle down.
“I know I have quite a fast kick but I still didn’t believe it until I looked behind a few metres before the line.”
© Sportsbeat 2013