Julien Vermote (OPQS) took the win on Stage 7 of the Tour of Britain as Alex Dowsett (Movistar) dropped out of the yellow jersey.

The Belgian’s win was the third win from the breakaway in as many days, after Matthias Brandle (IAM) won on Thursday and Friday.

It was an unfortunate day for the race leader Alex Dowsett (Movistar), who struggled on the climbs and lost the yellow jersey to Dylan Van Baarle (Garmin Sharp) on the longest-ever Tour of Britain stage.

A five-man break went away early in the stage: Kevyn Ista (IAM), Marcin Bialbolocki (Velosure-Giordana) and Ignatas Konovalovas (MTN-Qhubeka) were joined by Van Baarle and Vermote.

At one stage the leaders built up an advantage of nearly ten minutes, but they were not working as well together as previous breakaways and at one stage split into two groups.

However, the quintet came back together, although Bialbolocki looked to be struggling and drifted off the back more than once.

Dowsett suffered an early puncture and was forced to stop for a wheel change, but the man from Essex was able to chase back on safely.

The peloton, led by BMC, Movistar and Tinkoff-Saxo, began to chase and the gap fell steadily.

On the first climb of the day, the  Cat.2 Beachy Head, the break were first over the summit, and the final point went to Mark McNally (An Post), who sealed victory in the King of the Mountains competition.

On the second climb of the day, the Cat.1 Ditchling Beacon, Vermote launched his attack as the breakaway splintered.

Dowsett was visibly struggling and as the peloton split, the Commonwealth time trial champion found himself in the second group, behind GC rivals Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS) and Bradley Wiggins (Sky).

He struggled again on the final climb of Bear Road, another Cat.1 effort, and was unable to chase back to the main group.

Up ahead, Vermote was in the process of claiming his team’s third stage victory of the race.

Konovalovas and Van Baarle fought it out for second, with the Lithuanian coming out on top. However, it was the Dutchman who took the yellow jersey from Dowsett, having been 1:25 down on the Brit at the start of the stage.

“I feel really great,” said the new leader.

“After the finish I was really tired, it was a whole day [riding] full gas.

“Me and Konovalovas, we were pushing so hard and I was totally empty.

“My time trial is not too bad. I will do my best and we will see what happens.”

The race concludes on Sunday with a split stage in London.

The morning session provides a short time trial, before a circuit race in the afternoon.