Days after learning that he won't be at the start of this year's Tour de France, French climber Warren Barguil went on the attack in today's hilly sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse. With several sprinters still in conention, however, his move was doomed for failure.

Warren Barguil showed glimpses of his climbing prowess again today as he mounted an assault on a thinning peloton on the penultimate climb of the sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse. Barguil attacked on the ascent and crested the top with 16 seconds advantage over a hard chasing peloton. He held the gap down the other side but once back on the flatter roads he was up against a fast approaching group behind.

After a short period out in front Warren was back in the fold but he had done some damage to the group shelling several riders out of the back. Georg Preidler was next to move but once again this was short lived and the stage came down to a group sprint with Prediler coming over the line first for Team Giant-Shimano in 19th position.

The sixth stage was always going to be tough and go for John Degenkolb with four categorised climbs to get over, two of which fell in the final 25km. The day’s breakaway went on the first ascent of the day, and it was four riders who eventually established themselves ahead of the bunch for the day.

Their gap never reached much over four minutes and in the final 30km heading into the penultimate climb it was all over for the plucky quartet. Degenkolb was still present in the bunch but communicated to the others that he was not feeling good. Barguil took this opportunity to more clear on the climb and test his legs, powering over the top and racing down the descent on the otherside. However the splintered peloton was in no mood to let him get away and status quo was restored before the final climb.

More attacks came here and a small group led over the top, chased by Preidler but once again the front of the race regrouped on the flats and the head of the race powered towards the finish together to contest the stage in a sprint.

In the final few hundred metres Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma – Quickstep) was the fastest, while behind Preidler rolled in for 19th just ahead of Koen De Kort who the team had tried to set up for the finish but without success.

Team Giant-Shimano coach Marc Reef shared his reactions after the stage, saying:

“It was a hard stage today with the tough climbs at the end. John, Ramon [Sinkeldam] and Luka [Mezgec] didn’t make the front group over the penultimate climb and John addmitted to be still feeling the effects of his crash the other day.

“He went on to finish the stage OK while ahead there were still five guys in the front group but the run in was not easy and they struggled to group together. We wanted to get a lead-out together for Koen but this did not work out in the end so it gives us something to work on and to turn a negative into something good.”