Bradley Wiggins, of Great Britain, came close to a memorable victory on the Tour de France yesterday, but a lone breakaway that lasted for most of the 199.5kilometre sixth stage was foiled almost within sight of the finish line here.

Tom Boonen, of Belgium, may have won the final flat stage before the Tour enters the Alps this afternoon, but the star of the day was Wiggins, whose 190-kilometre breakaway was one of the longest solo attacks in the history of the event.

With the peloton again content to ride at a leisurely pace for much of the first half of the stage, Wiggins built a lead that rose to more than 17 minutes at one point. In the process, the world and Olympic pursuit champion became race leader “on the road” after making up his deficit on Fabian Cancellara, of Switzerland, the overall Tour leader.

Attacking alone with such a large distance to race is never ideal, but Wiggins had gambled on his attacking initiative being followed by other riders. “I attacked, looked around and saw I was on my own,” he said. “But I thought, ‘It’s the Tour de France, I should continue.’ When I got a minute’s lead, I thought that there might be a counter-attack that would come across to me. But then I got ten, 15 minutes and thought, ‘There you go.’ ” As a pursuiting specialist, Wiggins is accustomed to the lone effort, but this was a marathon attack and, inevitably, as the stage wore on, his lead dwindled.

With 60 kilometres left to race, Wiggins’s lead had dropped to less than five minutes and the peloton, finally showing a sense of urgency, had picked up speed.

But the Briton had been measuring his effort and he responded by accelerating again. Even with 20 kilometres to race, having been alone ahead of the field for more than 170 kilometres and almost five hours, the 26-year-old still led by just under two minutes. In the final kilometres, the peloton toyed with Wiggins, reeling him closer and then allowing him to slip farther ahead again.

Yet the straight rolling roads and a blustery headwind finally took their toll and he was overtaken by the main field with only seven kilometres to race.

Despite the solitude of his five-hour lone attack, the Briton received constant encouragement from his following team car. “I got constant feedback to how the peloton was riding, so it wasn’t too bad,” he said. “And we cracked a few jokes. When the peloton took a toilet break, I relaxed a bit.”

But both Wiggins and David Millar, his compatriot, denied that the lone breakaway and the peloton’s reluctance to chase had been inspired by the 40th anniversary of Tom Simpson’s death. “It was nothing to do with that,” Millar said. “Eighty per cent of the peloton don’t even know it’s the anniversary. That’s the sad truth of it.”

Today’s first mountain stage will reveal the true condition of Andreas Klöden, the German, and Alexandre Vinokourov, of Kazakhstan, the Tour favourites, both of whom crashed on Thursday’s stage to Autun. They reached the finish line yesterday in varying degrees of distress but will both start today. Klöden had suffered a hairline fracture to his tailbone and Vinokourov received 30 stitches to cuts on his knees during the fifth stage. Mark Biver, the Astana team manager, appeared more pessimistic over Klöden’s condition. “He’s had problems, mainly with getting power on the pedals, ” he said. Asked if Vinokourov would start the seventh stage, he added: “Of course. He will do whatever it takes to stay in the Tour. If he has to die on the bike, he will.”

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