Tour of Britain: Gaviria wins for Etixx in Blyth

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Four stages into the Tour of Britain and the score is two wins for Sky and two for Etixx-QuickStep after Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria scorched along the finishing straight in Blyth to take victory and reveal his talent to European fans.

It was Gaviria’s fifth win of the season after two each in the Tour de San Luis and the Czech Cycling Tour. But it was the most impressive because of the way in which he accelerated clear away from some major sprint names who are close to their best form with the Worlds just a couple of weeks away.

After Sky set the pace coming into the final two kilometres for double stage winner Elia Viviani, Lotto-Soudal’s train powered through in the final 1500 metres to set up Andre Greipel. The German made his move from 200 metres out, but had no response when Gaviria flashed by on his right to leave Greipel and Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) some distance back in his wake.

"It was a team victory," said Gaviria. "Mark [Cavendish] put me into position ahead of him and when the sprint began I simply went for it and gave everything that I had to take the victory."

Movistar’s Juan José Lobato became the first rider in this race to retain the yellow jersey as he finished in the pack behind Gaviria. But Boasson Hagen cut the Spaniard’s advantage to just half a dozen seconds thanks the four bonus seconds he claimed for third place.

But the day was all about Gaviria and Etixx-QuickStep. Although it didn’t begin well for the Belgian team, with stage two winner Petr Vakoc not starting as a result of the injuries he picked up in a crash towards the end of stage three, it ran to script from then on.

Matteo Trentin had already attempted to get into one break before he slipped into the six-man escape that also included Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin), Swiss champion Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing), Michael Svendgaard (Cult Energy), Rob Partridge (NFTO) and Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (MTN-Qhubeka).

Trentin’s presence in the break meant that Etixx didn’t have to commit riders to the chase, that task initially falling to Lobato’s Movistar teammates, and principally Alex Dowsett. When the sextet’s lead reached four minutes with two-thirds of the stage covered, Lotto-Soudal and Sky both committed riders to the pursuit and the break’s advantage soon began to tumble.

Aware that their lead was falling, Trentin urged his companions to press harder and soon after he, Wyss and Marangoni did exactly that, dropping the other three riders in the break. But the leaders finally yielded 17km from home. Apart from a brief flurry from Cult Energy’s Martin Mortensen and BMC’s Stefan Küng with eight kilometres remaining, Sky and the WIGGINS team kept the peloton moving swiftly and in check.

Those teams’ hopes rested on Viviani and Owain Doull, respectively, and Welshman Doull impressed again as he took fourth place and with it the lead in the points competition. But it was Etixx’s and, particularly, Gaviria’s day.

Although he played down Etixx DS Brian Holm’s comparison of him to Cavendish and Peter Sagan, Colombia’s world omnium champion is undoubtedly a special talent. "You can see that he’s a natural by the way he moves through the cars in the convoy," says Holm. "As well as being fast, he’s also fearless, and he can climb a bit too."

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