THE crowds flocked out throughout Oxfordshire to see Sir Bradley Wiggins, but it was Matthias Brandle, who collected his second successive stage win on the Tour of Britain yesterday.

The 130-mile six trip from Bath to Hemel Hempstead snaked through Oxfordshire, going into Wantage Didcot, Harwell and Chinnor.

While Brandle won the stage, Movistar’s Alex Dowsett stormed into the race lead with a second place.

Essex-born Dowsett began stage six 1min 25 secs behind Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Michal Kwiatkowski in the general classification.

But he got himself in the break along with IAM Cycling's Brandle and Tom Stewart, of Madison Genesis, and together they changed the shape of the Tour.

Dowsett now leads Kwiatkowski by 34 seconds, with the Italian Eduardo Zardini (Bardiani) 40 seconds behind in third and Tinkoff-Saxo's Nicholas Roche 50 seconds back in fourth.

Defending champion Wiggins had been focused on keeping himself there or thereabouts until the final time trial on Sunday.

But while his Sky teammates took the odd turn on the front, they were barely seen towards the end of the day.

Dowsett’s move leaves Wiggins with much work to do in today’s run from Camberley to Brighton, sitting 62 seconds down in seventh place.

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