HUNDREDS of thousands of spectators were left buzzing with excitement on Friday, after joining the Tour of Britain's tenth anniversary celebrations.

Stage six of this year's tour, hosted by Devon County Council, started in Sidmouth with a warm welcome from fans. After 126 kilometres of racing the route passed through Moretonhampstead.

The first summit finish in the modern era of the race didn't disappoint with Haytor providing the setting for an explosive finish. Despite attacks from Dan Martin of Garmin Sharp, and Nairo Quintana of Movistar, race leader Sir Bradley Wiggins led an elite group with one kilometre to go.

However, it was young Great Britain rider Simon Yates who was first to reach the top of the climb at Haytor to win the Stage, followed by Martin Elmiger of IAM Cycling and David Lopez of Sky Pro Cycling. Wiggins was just seven seconds behind Yates to maintain his overall lead in the race and keep the IG Gold Jersey with only two stages remaining. Wiggins went on to claim overall victory in the Tour of Britain.

Cllr Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council cabinet member for highways, said: 'It was marvellous to see so many people turn out for the tenth anniversary tour. Last year more than 220,000 people were watching along the route, and I'm sure we must have topped that today – probably more than a quarter of a million turned out.

'We got to see a British winner and Sir Bradley Wiggins kept the IG Gold Jersey. And with the Indian Summer arriving in Devon today the thousands of visitors and millions of people around the world watching on TV got to see Devon at its best.'

Kevin Bishop, chief executive of Dartmoor National Park Authority, said: 'The number of people here far exceeded what we expected. It builds on the success of previous years of the tour coming to Dartmoor and we're seeing the number of people cycling across Dartmoor, both on-road and off-road, increasing.

'There are direct economic benefits from the tour with local bed and breakfasts and hotels booked up for the week and weekend, and having Devon and Dartmoor beamed to countries across the world, hopefully its put us on the international map.'