Tour of Britain: Meyer wins stage 2 in Barnstaple

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The GC battle at the Tour of Britain began to take shape on stage two, as an elite chase group of eight riders came in hot on the heels of breakaway survivors Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott), who took the stage win in Barnstaple, and Bardiani-CSF rider Alessandro Tonelli, the new overall leader.

Meyer was quick to dismiss any chance that he might pose an overall challenge – this stage win would be enough, he implied – and he will now work to help the Mitchelton-Scott sprinter Caleb Ewan on the remaining three flat stages.

With Tonelli likely to be at a disadvantage in the team time trial up Whinlatter Pass on Thursday, and the next group at 39 seconds, the overall winner was likely to come from one of the strong men who escaped over the two tough climbs in the final 30 kilometres through North Devon, depending on who survives on what looks set to be another tough finale into Bristol on Tuesday.

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Among the eight chasers were the Quick-Step Floors duo Bob Jungels and Julian Alaphilippe, who had looked ominously strong over the short steep climb before the finish in Newport on Sunday, Team Sky’s Wout Poels and the Slovenian Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo). Also in there were EF-Drapac’s Hugh Carthy, Patrick Bevin (BMC), Jasha Sutterlin (Movistar) and Christopher Hamilton (Sunweb), while an exhausted Scott Davies of Dimension Data finished close behind the chasing group after being dropped by Meyer and Tonelli in the final miles.

Meyer, Tonelli and Davies were among five riders who went clear over the opening climb after the start at the new town of Cranbrooke, together with Matthew Teggart (Team Wiggins) and Erick Rowsell (Madison-Genesis). The five gained six and a half minutes early on, with Teggart eventually taking over the sprints jersey, and Davies ending the stage as King of the Mountains leader.

The decisive moves were sparked by Carthy, who attacked at 32 kilometres to go leaving the resort of Ilfracombe, in a bid to bridge to the early break. On the final ascent of the stage, the 1.3 km of Challacombe, Alaphilippe showed his strength in catching the young Briton, but as the race descended into Barnstaple, six more chasers in turn caught the Quickstep and EF-Drapac duo, and the eight then swept up Davies.

“We didn’t know what the gap was until eight kilometres to go, when we started asking each other,” said Meyer. “I knew it was going to be touch and go, I knew those names were going to come up very quick in the last few kilometres.” At the line Bevin and the rest had closed to just 2 seconds behind, with Carthy finishing 9 seconds off the back after having problems with his chain.

“I took a break in 2016 and came back stronger and happier,” said Meyer, who has won nine world titles in track endurance events, most recently the points race in Apeldoorn this spring. “I was happy that with my track background I could negotiate the sprint with whoever it was, I got the Italian [Tonelli – ed.] to lead from the kilometre to 500 to go and didn’t have a problem.”

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