Matthias Brandle (IAM) won his second consecutive Tour of Britain stage, emerging triumphant in Hemel Hempstead on Friday.
Brandle had already laid down a marker on Stage 5, and he proved that win was no fluke with another excellent victory as the race enters its final stages.
However, most of the post-race attention was focused on his breakaway companion Alex Dowsett (Movistar), who put enough time into overall leader Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS) to take the yellow jersey from the Pole.
Brandle and Dowsett, along with Tom Stewart (Madison Genesis), went clear shortly after the day's first intermediate sprint and wasted no time in building a substantial advantage, leading by more than nine minutes at one stage.
By this point, the peloton were beginning to panic and the chase began in earnest. However, the three leaders were flying and with 12 kilometres remaining their advantage was still more than two minutes.
Attention turned to which of the trio would take the victory. The riders worked well together, and in the final metres Dowsett led out Brandle and Stewart.
It would be the Austrian who took the stage win for the second consecutive day, rounding Dowsett, who took second, with the Stewart rolling in third.
“I never imagined this scenario. We took our chance and took time little by little,” said Brandle.
“When I heard that we had almost 10 minutes advantage, I could not believe my ears. And then the peloton was never able to catch up.
"With Dowsett, we really rode like a time trial those last 40 kilometers.
"I’m really so happy to get this win just 24 hours after what was the most important win of my career.”
Meanwhile, the Movistar man admitted the stage had required a monumental effort.
“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 [in Sunday's stage 8], but I was leaving a lot out on the road, and I might have given too much.
“Once the gap went up to seven minutes I thought, that’s quite big, then it was eight, nine, and I really started digging in.”
Dowsett now leads Kwiatkowski by 34 seconds, while Bardiani-CSF's Edoardo Zardini is a further six seconds back in third.
Stage 7 takes the race from Camberley to Brighton, before the race concludes in London on Sunday with a split stage.