Tour of Britain: Stannard wins stage 7

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Ian Stannard landed a strongman’s victory at the Tour of Britain in Mansfield after being out front in the wind and rain for almost 200 kilometres, in autumn chill that could easily have been Flanders in spring.

The 31-year-old Team Sky rider had no option but to win alone, having found himself up front with Nils Politt of Katusha with 25 kilometres left to the line after they had eluded a five-man break. But that is how Stannard likes to do it and he burst clear of Politt on a rise with 16 kilometres. For the next 10 kilometres the pair remained locked in combat, before Stannard finally cracked his rival and went on to win alone.

“When the bunch was chasing, we had to work harder but everyone was getting tired; when they stopped chasing you could see the guys easing off, so I had to go,” Stannard explained.

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“The first time I went he came with me, I felt I was a little bit stronger but in my mind he’s a strong rider so I had to hit him on a climb. It was always six or seven seconds, but on those rollers at the end I managed to crack him.”

For once, the sprinters teams were outmanoeuvred, due partly to the constant twisting and turning of the race route which left little chance to get a chase moving. It was partly to the weather and also the fact that Lotto-Soudal had made a tactical decision to leaving the bulk of the chasing to Caleb Ewan’s Mitchelton-Scott, an option that backfired on both teams.

With the five escapees enjoying almost a seven-minute lead midway through the stage, Mitchelton-Scott initially placed Mikel Nieve on the front, then added Cameron Meyer, and finally put Roger Kluge up there as well. Team Sunweb contributed a single rider, the British squad OnePro added a man as well, but when Mitchelton-Scott sat up with the gap at 4min 30 kilometres out, the sprinters had missed their chance.

The word before the start was that Stannard would be on an attacking mission, and the 31-year-old from Essex got moving soon after the start, initially dragging a 20-rider group clear over the opening King of the Mountains climb of the day. That break was doomed as it included fifth placed Bob Jungels and soon afterwards, Stannard pressed on, initially with Politt until they were caught by Mark McNally (Wanty), Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani) and Alex Paton (Canyon-Eisberg).

The five gained over six minutes before Mitchelton-Scott began to mount a serious chase together with Team Sunweb, Quick Step Floors, OnePro and the Great Britain amateur team. As Stannard piled on the pressure, Paton was dropped with 50km remaining, but his mission was complete: he had taken all three intermediate sprints to take over the lead in that competition. McNally was struggling too, and he and Carboni disappeared as soon as Stannard began softening up the break.

Behind, the Quick Step Floors team of race leader Julian Alaphilippe spent the day controlling his immediate rivals Wout Poels and Primoz Roglic, who are only 17 and 33 seconds back respectively.

“I can’t say the race is won,” said the Frenchman, “not until we reach the finish in London. I’m glad this is over. It was a long and difficult day, and the team had to work hard through the whole day to keep a lid on things.”

The Tour of Britain ends on Sunday with a 77km circuit stage around central London.

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