In a very fast-paced stage it turned out that Simon Gerrans was the man with the legs on the day, as he claimed victory over the rest of the riders who made it into the bunch sprint. The riders were strung out, because the pace was so high and a number of GC riders were caught out again, with Wiggins and Scarponi losing a further five seconds.
A break of eight riders managed to get away early on in the race, but BMC were in no mood to hang around and pushed the pace on, bringing them back with four kilometres to go. Towards the end there was a sharp left turn and it looked as though Meersman might get to the line first, until Gerrans shot forward and crossed the line ahead of Meersman, Dumoulin, Ratto and Wyss.
Whilst Gerrans took victory, Dan Martin further consolidated his position as leader, taking a three second bonus during an intermediate sprint, so that he now leads Rodriguez by 17 seconds. With less than a minute separating the top GC contenders, stage seven looks set to bring fireworks.
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