Dylan van Baarle grabbed the Friends Life Tour of Britain yellow jersey after claiming he put the pedal down for the longest stage of the race.

Julien Vermote, of Omega Pharma-Quick Step, rode clear on the penultimate climb to cross the finish line on Brighton seafront on his own.

But leader Alex Dowsett fell away from some of his fellow GC contenders on the final climb and Garmin Sharp's Dylan Van Baarle made the most of his chance to take the overall race lead after coming in 23 seconds behind Vermote.

Van Baarle stands 19 seconds clear of Omega Pharma QuickStep’s Michal Kwiatkowski with Edoardo Zardini of Bardiani CSF a further six seconds back in third place.

Asked how it felt to wear the yellow jersey with just tomorrow’s time trial and circuit race to go, he replied: “Really tired!”

He added: “It was a pretty hard race and we went almost start to finish full gas.

“When I crossed the finish line I was completely gone. It was a hard day.”

Van Baarle is not ready to say the win is the bag, though, with a number of riders still in the hunt.

He said: “Normally I am good on time trial but this is not an ordinary time trial after such hard days.

“It will be a little bit different but we shall see how far I can go.”

He added: “I will do my best. I don’t know how the legs will feel tomorrow or for the other guys.”

The Friends Life Yellow Jersey: Dylan Van Baarle GRS Chain Reaction Cycles Points Jersey: Michal Kwiatkowski OPQ SKODA King of the Mountains Jersey: Mark McNally Mark SKT Yodel Direct Sprints Jersey : Sebastian Lander BMC