The Irishman hung tough in the breakaway, eventually pulling away to the finish atop Le Mont-Dore alone, where he watched the clock, awaiting confirmation of a childhood dream.

"I think that's it," Ben said when the clock ticked over, ultimately securing his place as the Tour de France leader by 29 seconds. A huge smile spread across his face.

"That was such a tough stage," Ben said. "I’m pretty emotionless right now just because I’m so tired but it’s really beyond belief. If someone had told me I’d be in yellow and have won a stage by the first rest day as well, I’d have said, ‘I don’t believe you.’"

Ben’s achievement is his teammates’ too. Ben couldn’t have done this without their help. Harry, Alex, and Neilson attacked with Ben right after the flag dropped on the road out of Ennezat and came over the first climb of the day, the Côte de Loubeyrat, together in the break. With seven categorized climbs still ahead of them on the relentless 165.3-km route heading towards Le Mont-Dore, they marked moves and kept the pace high to establish a solid advantage over the peloton. And then Harry drove it, riding beyond himself, until the Col de Guéry, where Alex took over. Alex pushed the pace until he had nothing left in his legs, dropping off with 26 kilometers to go. And then it was up to Ben.

"If it wasn’t for those guys, I wouldn’t be in yellow today. I’ve got to say a massive, massive thank you to those guys. Harry Sweeny, absolute truck. Alex Baudin just really finished it off so without these guys, they could have fought for the stage themselves on another day so just a massive thanks to them," Ben said.

After his stage 6 win, Ben knew he had the legs to pull off another strong result. He bided his time, marking attack after attack from his rivals and pushing hard to gain time in the GC battle.

Congratulations, Ben! And congratulations to everyone in the EF Pro Cycling organization. We’re in the maillot jaune tonight!

Right now, I’m suffering so much from that last 40 kilometers that I think that when I go to bed tonight it will all just sink in. I will be sleeping in this yellow jersey, that is for sure. It is an exciting thing to bring home.

We were up in the break, and Tom was just like, "Harry, come on now. You start keeping the group going." I don't think we ever fully went for it until then, and then, it was like, damn, we can do this.

I thought it was going to be the normal, massive fight for the break, because so many people were interested. I thought it was going to be a hard day to even play for the stage. That was the mindset that I was going into the stage with. But then UAE just did something they've never done before, which is crazy. It was great for us. They were just like, "Anyone who wants to be in the break, you’re fine, go." That meant that we had four guys in the break, which was just incredible.

It wasn't working well, but with that many guys, when even just a few people are rolling through, you really start to build time. When it came to crunch time, we had three of the strongest riders in the break. Honestly, Harry and Alex were just incredible today. I wouldn't be in this jersey if it wasn't for them.

It gives me goosebumps to have a team that believes in me so much, and some guys that I can be really, really cool friends with as well is just — it is a really incredible feeling and I am so happy and proud that I was able to pay them back again today with a yellow jersey.

I felt good in the beginning and just rode hard on the first climb. I knew that there were some bodies being left behind there. I looked back a few times and saw the gaps happening. It wasn't really working that well, which I was getting super annoyed by.

So, it was actually good when the group split up from the attack from Quinn Simmons. After that it was it pretty much just ride as hard as you could until UAE exploded. They exploded and the gap just blew out. After that it was just up to Ben.

Riding up the final climb, I heard he was in yellow. I was nearly crying. I had goosebumps the whole way up. I can't believe it. I spoke to Ben and he can't believe it either. I have no words.

He's such a good guy and he really appreciates the work we do for him. To top it off like this, what more can you ask for?

It was like Pro Cycling Manager today — four guys in the break, burying ourselves together to get a big gap and hold onto the jersey.

We were just trying to use our cards well and gain time. Harry did a super job. He really, really made me suffer when he was riding on the flattish part. And then I started to pull on the climbs and did the maximum to get the gap as high as we could. Ben finished the job. It is crazy.

It was probably halfway when we started to think about yellow. We had about three minutes, because we went super hard on the climb. I think we gained a lot of time there. Then, Harry really put the pace on. It was really crazy. He made everyone suffer. We went really hard and gained those three minutes, and then we just kept pushing to the line.

It’s amazing to ride for Ben. When you know that you can have the yellow jersey in the team, it makes you go even harder, especially on days like today with all of the public. It was an amazing day.

I already lost my voice. The last two kilometers were quite loud inside our car. Man, we are happy. We didn’t expect that. We wanted to face the battle for a stage win, another one, and we’re going to do so further down the road again but nobody in the morning said, “Let’s go for yellow and white.” Nobody.

The team has been very good since 10 days already. We didn’t have the possibility to always show it. Today there was the possibility and they showed how good they are. Great team spirit. Yellow, how cool is that?

At around a hundred kilometers to go, I just said to Tom, "Listen, we've already won a stage. Let's go all in for the jersey." It was a way riskier proposition. We had four guys in there. If we'd played it a little bit slower and let Ben do his thing in the last 15 kilometers, I'm pretty confident Ben could have won the stage.

Instead, we basically just dragged that group flat-out for two hours. There was no assurance that it was going to work out. It was a way riskier proposition, but we went for it at about a hundred kilometers to go.

Harry — holy moly. He was worth two minutes of that gap we got on his own. The effort that Harry did and the number of climbs he made it over and then just kept pulling and kept going and kept going, that was impressive. And then Alex — Alex finished it off. Alex probably pulled out those last key 25 seconds. And then, from there, Ben had to do it on his own. We're blessed to have an athlete who can actually do that.

Up to about three kilometers to go, it was just like, "Forget about other riders; forget about anything else that's going on. Get to those three kilometers uphill and then you're going have to bury yourself on in a way that you probably never have before." Ben, obviously, has gone really deep in a number of races in his career. To tell Ben to go deep is sort of like telling a terrier to dig a hole.

And now, he is in the yellow jersey. The yellow jersey means everything in the world of cycling. Especially the way we accomplished it — I feel that this year the team this year is exceptionally well organized. Everyone is pulling their weight. Everyone is doing their best. The riders executed on our race plan exactly like we wanted them to. There have been times where it feels like you’ve been able to get a jersey because of this, that, or the other thing, but this one just feels like the entire organization was behind it. The fact that our team is so well recovered 10 days into the Tour de France, that's a result of our nutritionists and our soigneurs and our chiros and our sponsors, like Eight Sleep, Amacx, and Incrediwear who have provided us with great equipment, the doctors that have made sure that the riders are healthy. This is a result of our mechanics who work on the bikes every night, Cannondale who are always working with us to make our bikes faster, POC who keep our riders safe. Everyone has contributed to this.