With today's stage being probably the best chance all week to create gaps, home French team Sojasun are keen to keep the early breakaway close to set up squad leader Julien El Fares for a potential stage win.
An odd couple of attacks are seen on the next climb, but the pacemakers are doing a great job keeping them in contact.
Because of that, it's still all together down towards the final ascent. Clement has moved into leading position, with a group of around 30 still in contention.
Calmness and timing are vital keys on the brutal climb, but that doesn't stop El Fares from opening the sprint over 1,5 km from the finish.
Clement is feeling excellent and responds without any problems.
The man from Sojasun has indeed released his strength too early, as it's best U25 rider Fonseca who jumps into the lead under the red kite.
Once again, Clement follows - this time being the only rider to do so!
The quick Fonseca needs to be distanced ahead of the more flat upcoming stages, so Clement kicks in another gear and jumps into pole position.
No celebration until after the line to gain as much time as possible, but credit is deserved for Clement today!
11 seconds gap over Fonseca is registered, which even including bonus seconds isn't enough to take the race lead. Only one second separates them.
The rest of the peloton comes over the line more than a minute after Clement, which means that Groenewegen and the other sprinters who survived today's stage fairly well are more or less out of the overall fight.
No gap whatsoever opens, so instead we see race leader Fonseca hunting more bonus seconds by trying a surprising long sprint, 1500m out.
Evaldas and Clement are both luckily still feeling strong enough to respond.
Fonseca was apparently just hoping for the element of surprise, as his legs turn to jelly inside the final kilometer while Evaldas storms into the lead.
Everyone appears to be totally empty after the hectic finish, so Evaldas' kick allows our duo just about enough of an advantage to hold all the way!
The bonus moves Clement into the race lead, with Evaldas now 2nd. Fonseca's miss costs him two places as he drops to 3rd, at 11 seconds.
3rd place on the stage meanwhile goes to Bideau, for the second day in a row.
Indeed, the last few days have been almost as good as it gets.
Stage 6
Today is another hilly stage, albeit a fairly easy one. Apparently a bit too easy for the GC dangerman to waste much energy on it, which allows the break more than enough leeway to fight for a stage win.
7 riders in total, including Jeanlou. Together they reach Lannion and the final circuit with a good buffer of 5'30 on the main field.
The gap isn't even coming down, as all those up front are far behind on GC and thus no threat for GC positions. Apart from a few half-hearted attacks from Bideau and El Fares, today turns out to be a big anticlimax.
Not much happens in the leading group either, and the stage win is decided in a sprint. The quickest being Marco Minnaard (Rabobank).
Jeanlou finishes 3rd, not quite able to match the acceleration of Minnaard and Justin Van Hoecke (Wallonie-Bruxelles).
The peloton arrives at the finish some four minutes later. Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) was looking certain to gain a chunk of time on the rest with a kilometer to go, but a late burst from Evaldas spoils those plans.
Clement crosses the line a few wheels further back, alongside Fonseca. The overall lead therefore stays in our hands for another day.
The overall lead usually comes with the pressure of having to control the long breakaway, but with Toms taking part as best placed rider, we're more than happy to sit back and watch as they gain over 14 minutes.
Eventually, the other teams catch the hint and the gap is narrowed down to just a couple of minutes in a panic-stricken hunt. A temporary slowdown from that with 30 km to go gives Bobbie Traksel (Champion System) and Dimitri Champion (Bretagne) the opportunity to leap across by themselves.
Back in the main field, most eyes are once again directed towards us. We're obviously still not going to do anything, and Toms now turns up the heat in the breakaway groups as they climb the cobbles into Dinan.
Not even former KBK winner Traksel is able to cope with the acceleration, so Toms just tucks into timetrialling position and rides away.
The peloton is dropping further back further back, now at 3 minutes, so Traksel tries to find another gear to get back on with a little over 10 km left.
The gap proves to be a little too much for the Dutchman, so Toms rolls home to cap an incredible race with stage win number 5!
Traksel broke down mentally after failing to hang with Toms, and barely manages to stay ahead of a closing peloton in the final kilometers.
Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis) leads home the peloton 20 seconds behind, at 2'04. That's great news for us, as it denies the better placed Europcar duo Jerome and Gaudin of bonus seconds.
Even better is the fact that no gaps are clocked in a stretched out peloton, allowing Clement to secure the overall win!
Not to mention that today's gains pushes Toms up to 6th on GC.
When I mentioned that we intend to go Worldtour next year and need a proper leadout man for Evaldas, he was immediately interested. Depending on what the UCI decides, he might be joining at the end of the year. We obviously haven't reached any agreements yet, but he said that he'd be more than happy to speak again later this year.
Edited by Pellizotti2 on 23-04-2013 17:50
Although the race's parcours design is somewhat arguable considering how far out from the finish the climbs are, this still has the potential for good action. The long flat part means that the sprinters are likely to come out on top in the end.
Because of that, many are obviously present for the race.
Having the relatively punchy Evaldas as our main sprinter, we figure right from the start that our chance of winning this race is by reducing the peloton enough to eliminate some of the pure sprinters.
To do that, we make sure to set the pace high already on the first climb.
Unfortunately, it's just not working. The peloton is gets massively stretched out by the high speed, but the elastic never snaps anywhere.
We therefore change the plans, and Clement sets off on the day's second big climb, in pursuit of the early breakaway members.
In just a short matter of time, he has both caught and started reducing the group on the relatively difficult climb. Tiago Machado (Radioshack) and Enrico Zen (Androni) are the only two remaining on his wheel.
Down on the flat, they thankfully start sharing the pacemaking. Unfortunately the same is happening in the peloton, and the gap shrinks.
Inside the final 20 km, or two laps, it starts to look really bad for the trio as both Machado and Zen decide to hang back after failing to attack.
Frustrated, Clement sees no other option but to carry on by himself.
Almost exactly one lap later, the peloton makes the catch. Or not exactly, as Clement puts in a short dig and gains a few metres again.
Apparently shocked by the latest manouever, the peloton slows down. The gap goes as far up as one minute before Bardiani-Valvole picks up the pace again.
Evaldas does his best to disturb the leadout, but Modolo has his mind fixed on a sprint and Clement's advantage inevitably goes down again.
With 2500m remaining, he is back within sight.
Modolo is apparently playing some sort of mind game however, and for some reason decides to slow down instead of launching his sprint as Clement is swallowed up just 1500m from the finish.
This stalls Evaldas, while Tom Van Asbroeck (Topsport) and Francesco Lasca (Caja Rural) storms into the lead.
It's too late to react for the rest, and Van Asbroeck nets a big win!
Lasca and Michael Matthews join him on the podium, whereas Evaldas fails to reach further up than 11th after the annoying slowdown.
A dead tired Clement finishes way back in 38th. He surely deserved better after the fight he put up out on the course.
Rund um Eschborn-Frankfurt
Not a good performacen from the team. 
