A stunning ride from Alex Dowsett saw him take an overall lead in the Tour of Britain.

Dowset, from Cock Clarks, was part of a three-man breakaway on yesterday’s Bath to Hemel Hempstead stage which was won by IAM Cycling’s Matthias Brandle and put Dowsett into the yellow Jersey.

Dowsett, 25, began the 205.6km run from Bath to Hemel Hempstead one minute 25 seconds behind race leader Michal Kwiatkowski in the general classification.

Defending champion Sir Bradley Wiggins dropped to seventh, 62 seconds behind.

Dowsett collected 12 bonus seconds after finishing runner-up on the stage and also winning two intermediate sprints, meaning he has a 34-second lead over second-placed Kwiatkowski.

Dowsett, Brandle and Stewart went clear after 50km of racing, eventually building up an advantage of more than five minutes over the peloton.

An expected pursuit of the leading trio failed to materialise, and their lead was still over three minutes with 15km remaining.

Dowsett opted not to contest Brandle for the stage victory on the final straight, with his position as overall leader assured “I’m in the form of my life but that was the hardest day of my life,” admitted Dowsett afterwards. “I thought I thought I might have given too much.”

Today’s seventh stage runs for 225.1km from Camberley to Brighton.