Tour of Britain: Lampaert wins from breakaway on stage 7

Image 1 of 22

Yves Lampaert gave Deceuninck-Quickstep their 55th win of 2021 and their first stage win of the 2021 Tour of Britain, beating Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and Matt Gibson (Ribble-Weldtite) from the day's successful breakaway to Edinburgh.

Race leader Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) led the peloton to the finish ahead of second-placed Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 1:51 behind the lead group to keep the top of the general classification the same.

Lampaert was part of the day's early breakaway along with teammate Davide Ballerini, Jorgenson, Gibson, Christopher Blevins (Trinity Racing) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma), but the group split on the run-in when Lampaert launched a stinging attack.

He credited his teammate for helping him play the tactical game in the finale when it was just him, Jorgenson and Gibson.

"It's the biggest advantage you can have if you can play with two guys in the final, two of five. It's an advantage but it keeps the pressure high, you can't afford to lose if you're two of five so I'm really happy I could finish it off.

"It was quite nervous of course, we were three so it's always difficult to finish it off. I took the wheel of Gibson, I heard on the radio he was quite fast. I had to do quite a long sprint, I started at 250 to and could hold it to the line," Lampaert said.

"I'm really happy. I did already a lot for the team but today I could finish it off by myself and it's a huge relief."

How it unfolded

Riders faced a lengthy stage in Scotland after Friday's marathon across the north of England, with a lumpy 195.7km route north from Hawick to Edinburgh. 

It was no surprise that it would be a day for the breakaway, and four riders kicked clear in the opening kilometres, with the best-placed rider over five minutes down on Hayter.

Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma), Matt Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling), and Christopher Blevins (Trinity Racing) made up the escape and gained a generous five minutes while being chased by Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar).

Jorgenson and Lampaert made it across without Nicolau, and by the time the six-man escape made the first climb at Berrybush, they'd opened up a lead of 7:25 on the blue jersey group, with Jorgenson the virtual leader on the road.

The American claimed the maximum points at the intermediate sprint in Innerleithen after 47.8km of racing, and when Lampaert took the points at the next sprint in Duns after 125km, they still had eight minutes.

The gap began to fall below the five-minute mark in the final 50km, kicking Jorgenson out of the virtual lead as Alpecin-Fenix and Israel Start-Up Nation came to the front to help whittle down the gap. Blevins, who'd been in the breakaway earlier this week, lost touch with the group on an unclassified climb with 20km to go, leaving five up front.

With 10km to go, the breakaway looked set to contest the stage win with three minutes and change on the peloton heading into Edinburgh. An enthusiastic young cyclist raced the breakaway up a hill with 10km to go and received a gift for his efforts from Eenkhoorn in the form of a bidon.

In the final 10km, the cat and mouse games started, with the two Deceuninck-Quickstep riders unsuccessfully trying to shake their rivals. 

Lampaert surged and was hunted down by Jorgenson, forcing Eenkhoorn to lead the chase. The Movistar rider was more than happy to work with the Belgian, favouring his chances in a two-up sprint. The pair forged a gap of six seconds with 6km to go when Lampaert, looking behind at the chasers, touched wheels with Jorgenson and nearly crashed.

Gibson, seeing the brief slowing ahead, attacked to bridge across with 5.5km to go and made the catch, leaving Eenkhoorn to disagree with Ballerini's reluctance to chase. Now with three in the lead, Lampaert refused to pull to help Ballerini get back in but Gibson and Jorgenson were keen to keep the pace going.

Gibson attacked with 3.2km remaining as the trio held 16 seconds on the two chasers but Lampaert hunted him down. Jorgenson tried to surprise them with an attack around a traffic island but the Deceuninck-Quickstep rider shut that down too. Meanwhile, in the peloton, Ineos helped bring the gap down to just over two minutes.

Gibson led the trio into the final kilometre as Jorgenson waited for his moment to pounce at the back. They had enough of a lead to play a tactical game. Gibson attacked first but was quickly overtaken by Lampaert who had enough power to hold off Jorgenson and claim the stage win for Deceuninck-Quickstep.

He celebrated by sucking his thumb, dedicated his win to his recently born son
Aloïs.