Highlights from stage six of the Tour of Britain 2023, held between Southend-on-Sea and Harlow on Friday 8 September.
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00:00 Another day at the seaside and another stage in which the expectation was that it would end in a bunch sprint and another opportunity for Jumbo Visma to show off their domination.
00:10 Either with the new race leader Wout van Aert or indeed with the four-time stage winner Olaf Kooij, the Dutchman.
00:16 Southend on C, the start of a 146.2km roll through the county of Essex to a finish in Harlow.
00:26 Olaf Kooij leading the points competition and instead of the race leader's jersey, wearing the green jersey that denoted his supremacy in the points standings after four stages and four victories.
00:38 When the flag dropped a little bit late, the usual suspects were on the attack, including a two-up attack from TDT Unibet, who managed to get in the early break of the day Joran Blum and Abram Stockmann once again in a move.
00:51 They were joined by Q's 36.5's Polish rider Kamil Mawetski.
00:56 Those three riders got together and the usual pattern started to assume itself with Jumbo Visma allowing the gap to grow to two and a half minutes before Steven Kruijswijk and Jos van Emden started to ride to control things for Jumbo Visma and for Olaf Kooij.
01:11 In the final flat stage before the weekend's climbs, this was an opportunity that the breakaway had to build up a slender advantage and not much on offer for the riders in baking heat as they wound their way in towards the county of Essex.
01:30 They then decided to slow up a little bit, which brought the race back together again and encouraged riders to attack from the peloton.
01:36 Jumbo Visma just before the intermediate sprint at Bernamont-Crouch starting to lose a little bit of control of the front as repeated attacks, this one coming from Alex Coleman of Flanders-Balois, went off the front.
01:50 The three riders were eventually joined by two further riders to make it a five-man group. Martin Odinstad-Bugge from Uno-X also getting across, the Norwegian eventually.
02:03 Jumbo Visma trying to assert control again but open to repeated attacks and it was St. Peren, the aggressive British continental team, who launched another attack and provoked a reaction from Jumbo Visma.
02:14 We were beginning to feel that the breakaway at the front of the race as they passed through the sprint with Abram Stockmann on the front was getting a little bit too big.
02:21 Just a handful of seconds as they went through Bernamont-Crouch.
02:25 Still active at the front, it was a question of which kind of breakaway would be the second break of the day and would TDT Unibet also be represented?
02:36 For a while it was a stalemate as repeated attempts were ridden down by Ineos Grenadiers and primarily Jumbo Visma.
02:44 But St. Peren were determined to get another move going.
02:47 And it was Jack Rutkin-Gray and Will Tidball who eventually made the final breakaway of the day.
02:54 Five riders at the front, two from St. Peren, two from TDT Unibet.
02:57 They were joined by the Dutchman in the colours, the green colours of Kern Pharma.
03:01 And that was Danny van den Tuch. The two riders on this occasion from TDT Unibet being Abram Stockmann once again and Harthuis de Vries.
03:09 It was Stockmann who was one of three riders from the breakaway who suddenly punctured.
03:16 And this took them out of the equation. Will Tidball being the St. Peren rider who also suffered a similar fate.
03:23 Jack Rutkin-Gray then sat up and in the end it was only Abram Stockmann and Harthuis de Vries who were left out there dangling by a peloton.
03:32 Who kept them out there for a long time at around about 12 seconds before inside the last 10km they shook hands and were swept up by DSM and Bora Hansgrohe.
03:42 Who started to assert themselves in control of the peloton.
03:46 Jumbo Visma allowing other teams to set the pace.
03:48 A heavy crash for the unfortunate Fernando Gaviria which looked serious as he reached for his collarbone.
03:53 Taking him out of the equation for Movistar.
03:56 The pace then slowed with about 8km to go allowing Dimitri Peskin of Bingol to attack off the front.
04:02 And he built up 15 seconds of a lead as they headed towards the final 4km.
04:07 Ineos Grenadiers then snuffed out his attack riding for Tom Pidcock in the final.
04:11 And Jumbo Visma were starting to maneuver themselves towards the front.
04:18 Another big crash involving another Movistar rider in the final kilometer or just outside it.
04:23 Cut the peloton in half and then Olaf Koi opened up his sprint but found himself on the back foot and barging in the company of Ethan Vernon.
04:32 Vernon then found the gap, the British rider, and with 50m to go lunged for the line only to find himself pipped to the post by the slenderest of margins.
04:40 By Borja Hansgrohe's Danny Van Poppel.
04:43 After a string of second places Van Poppel finally gets his win.
04:46 And at the end of stage 6 Van Aert still leads by 3 seconds to Ethan Vernon and a bunch of other riders.
04:53 Thanks for watching!