Tour of Britain: Groenewegen wins in Cheltenham

Image 1 of 39

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) won a wet and wild stage seven of the Tour of Britain. Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) just missed out on yet another win to take second, while Brenton Jones (JLT-Condor) finished third. Groenwegen’s teammate Lars Boom retains the overall lead.

It was the first stage of the race that saw any real attacks outside of the daily breakaway, and with some relatively major hills in the finale, the action started from 80km out. Katusha-Alpecin were perhaps the most active team of the day, sending rider after rider up the road, including Tony Martin, who spent 20km solo at the head of the race before being caught before the day’s final sprint.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) provided the major threat to Boom’s GC position, attacking on the final climb. His move had looked promising, but the sprinter’s teams behind put paid to it within sight of the flamme rouge.

First Katusha-Alpecin, then Orica-Scott took to the head of the peloton, but what has been the best leadout of the race so far failed to deliver on the damp roads of Cheltenham. Instead it was Groenewegen who got it right, passing Luka Mezgec by the barriers to hold off a fast-approaching Ewan on the line.

“The stage was very hard but I survived and also GC was important for the team,” Groenewegen said at the post-race press conference. “It was a hard day for the team but I survived it.

“It was a little bit of a freestyle sprint so I sprinted from Caleb Ewan’s wheel and Gaviria, but yeah I saw the finish line and I was thought ‘yeah I can hold it,’” he added. “Yeah I think so [it’s my best year]. If you can win a stage in the Tour de France that’s a really good win so yeah it’s a very good year.”

Race leader Lars Boom was pleased with the team’s work on the day, despite the barrage of attacks he withstood.

“With the small breakawy with Boasson Hagen, it was a little bit critical, but I think I went full on the downhill to keep the gap as close as possible,” Boom said. “Then some sprinter’s teams took over and still we won the sprint, so it was a great day.”

How it unfolded

There was a warm start to the penultimate stage of the Tour of Britain in Hemel Hempstead, as the riders prepared to tackle the hilliest stage yet; potentially the decisive stage in sorting the final GC.

LottoNL-Jumbo had 185km up ahead of them during which they’d have to fend off any assaults on Boom’s tenuous eight second lead. Teammate Victor Campanaerts started the day in second, but the likes of Michał Kwiat-kowski, Geraint Thomas (both Team Sky) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) all lay within 20 seconds of Boom.

The fight for the break began as soon as the flag dropped, and several groups came and went before the definitive break of the day was established after 26km. Dexter Gardias (Bike Channel-Canyon), Steele Von Hoff (One Pro Cycling) and Robert Power (Orica-Scott) were the first men to escape, and were soon joined by Jacob Scott (AnPost-Chain Reaction), Lukasz Owsian (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice) and Russell Downing (JLT-Condor).

Back in the peloton the pace slowed, with the big teams clearly content with the makeup of the breakaway. The gap quickly grew out to four minutes on the rolling early part of the stage in the Cotswolds, while the early sunshine gave way to showers, which would come and go all day.

Scott took the first of the day’s three climbs ahead of Owsian, further extending his mountain classification lead. Back in the peloton, LottoNL-Jumbo were in control, as Bike Channel-Canyon and CCC Sprandi-Polkowice lay close behind, perhaps attempting to disrupt the chase.

With 120km of the race run and with the hills at the stage’s end fast approaching, Tiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin) had clearly tired of hanging around in the peloton and put in a speculative attack. The 31-year-old quickly built a one minute gap, but looked doomed to remain chasse patate.

As the kilometres ticked by, there was action in the peloton with 50 to go as a small group including Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Sky), Reto Hollenstein (Katusha-Alpecin), Alex Dowsett (Movistar), Ryan Mullen (Cannondale-Garmin) and Silvan Dillier (BMC) clipped away. They gained a 20 second gap, but eventually only succeeded in quickening the peloton’s pace, which brought everything back together.

Katusha-Alpecin were clearly keen to take something from the day, as world time trial champion Tony Martin immediately countered. The already reduced peloton splintered and regrouped as various attempts were made to bridge over to the German, who enjoyed a 20 second lead.

In the valley before the final climb, there looked to be around 60 riders remaining as Sky and Dimension Data did the work. Martin was caught with 13km to go, just before fourth-placed man Stefan Küng (BMC) took three bonus seconds at the final sprint of the day, while Boom took one.

Attacks peppered the final climb of the day, just 10km from the line. Boom had managed to close down the majority, until an attack from Boasson Hagen managed to stick. Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Laurens De Plus (Quick Step Floors), Dylan Van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac) and Dion Smith (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) went with him, until a crash took Van Baarle and De Plus out of the reckoning with 6km to go.

After Boom frantically motioned for help chasing the move, it was Katusha once again who came to the front, ending Boasson Hagen’s GC hopes 2km of the finish. Orica-Scott’s train was the next to go into action, but it was Groenwegen who prospered, just denying Ewan victory number four.

Results