MOVISTAR’S Alex Dowsett stormed into the race lead of the Tour of Britain yesterday as Matthias Brandle collected his second consecutive stage victory in another breakaway.

Essex-born Dowsett began stage six one minute 25 seconds behind Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Michal Kwiatkowski in the general classification but got himself in the break along with IAM Cycling’s Brandle and Tom Stewart of Madison Genesis and together they entirely changed the shape of the Tour.

Capitalising on the time trialling skills of both Brandle and Dowsett, they built a lead of more than nine minutes on the road, and the peloton rarely looked capable of bringing it back despite some frantic efforts from Omega Pharma-Quick Step in the closing stages of the challenging 205.6km run from Bath to Hemel Hempstead.

Dowsett showed no interest in contesting Brandle for the stage victory on the final straight, knowing his job was done as he took a 34 second lead in the overall standings.

“It was the hardest day of my life,” Dowsett said. “I just thought they were letting us out to bring us back and I was a bit hacked off with myself because I thought I could have a good time trial but I was leaving a lot out on the road and I might have given too much.