Boom wins Tour of Britain time trial

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Lars Boom (LottoNL-Jumbo) took the overall lead at the Tour of Britain, with a decisive victory in the stage five time trial. The Dutchman, who won the race in 2011, beat teammate and European time trial champion Victor Campenaerts into second place by six seconds, while Stefan Küng (BMC) was two seconds further back in third place.

Boom's time of 19:02 was one of the last to be set, and gives him a GC lead of eight seconds over Campenaerts. Seven further riders lie within twenty seconds of the lead, setting up an intriguing race situation going into the final three stages.

For his first win since 2015, it was a commanding one for Boom. He set the fastest time at the 8km checkpoint, clocking 9 minutes exactly. Before Boom's blitz, the quickest riders to the halfway mark were Küng, Alex Dowsett (Movistar) and Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), setting times a full 18 seconds slower.

The wind, a tailwind from the start along Clacton coast but a headwind on the way back to the finish, was a factor as many riders posted slower times in the second half of the stage. One might have expected Boom to slow considerably during the second half, but he held on for a comfortable victory.

"I know I always go out quite hard," he said after the stage. "So I knew already that with the headwind in the last four kilometres I might drop some seconds, but in the end, I could keep it [my gearing] on 45, 48 so it was quite OK."

"For sure [I'm pleased], especially if you see all the names in the top 10. I'm really happy with it. The week before I came to Britain I had some problems with my stomach, so I was looking for shape but in the end, the feeling was pretty good on the TT bike.

"We have to make a plan for the next few days," Boom said. "It could be difficult with only six riders in the team. It makes racing a bit more tactical I think. But 20 seconds is not much so I don't know yet."

How it unfolded

While the race up to this point had been a sprinter's paradise, stage 5 was all about the wealth of time trialists present. The early pace was set by Marcin Bialoblocki (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice), who posted the first sub-20 minute time of the day.

The Pole clocked in at 19:34, but the opening hour of the day saw something of a time trial hot seat version of musical chairs. A surprise ride from Harry Tanfield (Bike Channel-Canyon) saw him go six seconds faster than Bialoblocki. The 22-year-old is clearly in great form - he had been in the break on stage 3.

Luke Durbridge (Orica-Scott) was the next man to go fastest with a time of 19:23, but 20 minutes later, 2015 world time trial champion Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) obliterated the Australian's time by 14 seconds.

From then on it was just a case of waiting for the other big names to head out and battle for the win. Kiryienka's teammate Geraint Thomas briefly made it a Sky one-two with a time of 19:19 before Campenaerts went on to set a time of 19:08, which would be beaten by only one rider.

By that point, late in the afternoon, the time trial stars were heading out onto the course thick and fast. Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo), Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky), Dowsett, Küng and Martin all came and went, all failing to beat the Belgian who held the provisional lead.

After Boom had blown everybody away, the only remaining intrigue was to see how the sprinters at the top of the GC classification managed to hold up.

The short story is that they didn't. At least, not apart from Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data). The Norwegian put in a respectable time of 19:32 to leave him 19 seconds behind Boom heading into the potentially decisive final stages.

Meanwhile, race leader Elia Viviani (Team Sky) came in 1:23 down on Boom's time. Second overall before the stage, Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) endured a miserable ride as mechanical problems necessitated a bike change on his way to finishing almost four minutes down.

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