Edoardo Affini won stage six of the Tour of Britain, while Mathieu van der Poel retook the race lead in Pershore yesterday.
The Italian completed the 14.4km individual time-trial in 16:40, with Sebastian Langeveld finishing seven seconds later. Dylan van Baarle claimed third.
“It’s a really special victory and I’m really happy with it,” said Affini.
“It was probably more stressful to wait in the hot-seat than to do the TT. There are strong riders here, more or less we know each other and we know who is really strong in the event, but I managed to do a good TT and pace myself well.
“I was really able to give everything on the way back home and I’m really happy to win.”
Matteo Trentin, who took the overall lead on stage five, moved down to second. Pavel Sivakov placed third.
“I think I did the best I could, I was expecting to lose a little bit and six seconds is not the end of the world, but it’s going to be hard to take it back,” said Trentin.
“There’s two days to go and it’s getting harder and harder everyday.”
Edoardo Affini won the individual time-trial on stage six of the Tour of Britain in Pershore yesterday. Photo: Getty Images
View more results below.
Stage six results (14.4km)
1. Edoardo Affini (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott 16:40
2. Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) EF Education First +00:07
3. Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Team Ineos
4. Luke Durbridge (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott +00:08
5. Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Education First +00:10
6. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus +00:12
7. Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin +00:13
8. Jos van Emden (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma +00:16
9. Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Ineos +00:17
10. Frederik Frison (Bel) Lotto Soudal +00:20
General classification
1. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus 21:50:49
2. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott +0:00:06
3. Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Ineos +0:00:24
4. Jasper De Buyst (Bel) Lotto Soudal +0:00:26
5. Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin +0:00:27
6. Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Ineos +0:00:33
7. Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma +0:00:35
8. Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Education First +0:00:36
9. Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team +0:00:39
10. Amund Grøndahl Jansen (Nor) Team Jumbo-Visma +0:00:40
