Tour of Britain: Greipel wins opening stage

Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) landed the sixth Tour of Britain stage of his career in Newport, with a late drive to the finish line showing the young Turks of sprinting Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step floors) that he is still capable of winning, with the added twist that Ewan is set to replace the near-veteran German at Lotto Soudal next year.

After a largely controlled stage behind a six-man break that was never allowed to gain more than three minutes, the race briefly blew apart on the short steep climb of Belmont Hill, eight kilometres from the line, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) celebrating his return to home roads with a furious attack which looked serious in intent until the celebrations since the Tour de France made themselves felt, and he went backwards like a stone dropping off a bridge.

The pacemaking was taken over by Julian Alaphilippe, with his Quick-Step Floors teammate Bob Jungels close behind, and Direct Energie’s Jonathan Hivert closing on the descent with Katusha-Alpecin’s Mads Wartz Schmidt. The quartet collaborated briefly to gain 11 seconds, with Jungels then continuing solo as Alaphilippe marked the other two. The move was not planned, said the Quick-Step directeur sportive Brian Holm, with all his riders given a free hand in the final kilometres.

With the sprint teams struggling to get organised after the flurry of attacks up Belmont, it looked briefly as if Jungels might stay clear after the chasing trio were swept up three kilometres from home, but the Luxembourger gave best at the kilometre, setting the stage for a hectic sprint led out by BMC Racing. Gaviria flew clear too early, opening a two-length gap, but leaving Ewan time to make his effort on the left of the finish straight while Greipel went through the middle, swerving right to take advantage of a slight curve in the road.

The early escape took shape soon after the start flag was dropped at the exit from Pembrey Country Park, and it consisted of five riders from UK teams: Richard Handley (Madison-Genesis), Tom Moses (JLT-Condor), Matthew Teggart (Wiggins), Matt Bostock (Great Britain), with South African Nic Diamini from Dimension Data the only World Tour presence.

The sextet were clearly targeting the intermediate sprints and climbs, with Diamini ending up in the mountains jersey and Bostock in the sprint leader’s tunic, and with no more than a 2min 45sec advantage they were never going to survive to the finish, as Mitchelton-Scott, Team Sky, Quick-Step and EF Education First-Drapac maintained a constant tempo behind. The end came with 11 kilometres to go, after which the peloton was led at warp speed to the foot of Belmont by Ian Stannard and Vasil Kiriyenka.

While the race finished largely together in spite of the final climb before the finish, serious splits were anticipated on the hillier roads of North Devon on Monday, with a host of unranked ups and downs before the lengthy ascent of Bratton Fleming and the first-category climb of Challacombe before the finish in Barnstaple.

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