At the end of 183km Mark Downey was just pipped for a Tour de l'Avenir stage win.

Mark Downey 2nd on Tour de l'Avenir stage 6

Mark Downey has taken a very strong 2^nd place at the Tour de l’Avenir but was just pipped on the line at the end of stage 6 today.

The Team Wiggins man, riding for Ireland this week, was part of a nine-man breakaway.

And though the peloton very nearly caught them on the line, the best of the escapees stayed clear on the uphill finish.

When Downey hit the front in the sprint it look like he may just be about to land a huge win.

However, Alessandro Covi of the Italian national team go passed him for the win.

Downey had to be content with 2^nd and could be seen banging the handlebars in frustration coming over the finish line.

Downey had made the breakaway in the 183.5km stage from Le Blanc to Cérilly with fellow Irishman Daire Feeley.

And while the move pulled out a gap of two minutes, their advantage came right down on the line.

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Just five of them would survive a handful of seconds ahead of the front of the peloton.

Mark Downey and Covi finished on the same time as 3rd placed Simon Gugliemi (France).

There was then a gap of two seconds to the next two breakaway survivors; Zeke Mostov (United States) in 4th and Jonas Gregaard (Denmark) in 5th.

Germany's Max Kanter, who won the opening stage of the race, took the bunch sprint for 6th place.

Eddie Dunbar, who can hopefully come to the fore over the next few hilly stages, finished in the bunch in 30th.

Also in the peloton today was Matt Teggart, in 37th, as well as Darragh O'Mahony and Michael O'Loughlin; in 84th and 101st.

Feeley was unlucky to be among the four men from the escape who were swallowed up at the very end of the stage.

He was caught by the bunch and finished some 18 seconds off the back of it, in 111th,  having buried himself in the closing kilometres.

Michael O’Loughlin was in an earlier escape that looked like the breakaway of the day. However, it was recaptured just over halfway through the stage.

More to follow.