Tour of Britain: Van Aert snatches overall victory with final stage win

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Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) won stage 8 and the overall title of the Tour of Britain after an unstoppable sprint win on the final stage in Aberdeen.

The Belgian powered to the line ahead of veteran sprinter Andre Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Mark Cavendish (QuickStep) to take his fourth stage win of the race and overturn an overnight deficit to Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) to win the overall by just a handful of seconds.

Van Aert came into the stage four seconds down on Hayter and was forced to watch on as a six-man break took all the intermediate sprint points during the stage. The Belgian committed his entire team to the chase and was had to sprint on his own but he latched onto Cavendish’s wheel 10km from the finish. Despite momentarily losing the wheel inside the final 1,000 meters the Jumbo-Visma rider powered clear to take the victory.

If Hayter had finished either first or second on the stage then he would have sealed the overall win but he was briefly boxed in and then simply ran out of legs when Van Aert unleashed his dash for the line.

It looked as though Greipel would take a surprise win in one of his final races before retiring. The German was the first sprint heavyweight to open his acceleration as he powered down the centre of the road but Cavendish and Van Aert were quick to respond with the Belgian coming through to take the honours. As he crossed the line, Van Aert checked back to see where Hayter had finished before realizing that the British all-rounder was out of contention.

Cavendish enjoyed the most complete leadout with the entire QuickStep team put at his disposal. They lost Davide Ballerini to a mechanical inside the closing kilometers but Julian Alaphilippe stepped up and was the last rider to hit the front for Cavendish. However, the Tour de France green jersey winner was caught out by Greipel’s acceleration and simply didn’t have the gas to match Van Aert on the line.

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How it unfolded

The final stage of the 2021 Tour of Britain saw another strong breakaway with Jokin Murguialday (Caja Rural), Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling), Thomas Gloag and Ben Healy (Trinity Racing), Michał Paluta (Global 6 Cycling), and William Bjergfelt (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) going clear in the opening kilometres.

The six-rider break built up nearly four minutes after the race rolled out from Stonehaven with Jumbo Visma and QuickStep controlling the pace of the peloton. Both teams were interested in setting up a sprint finish with van Aert after the bonus seconds to win the overall and Cavendish still looking for his first stage win of the race. 

With 140km to go the gap stood at 3:39 but the leaders were reduced to five when Bjergfelt was dropped on the tough climb of Cairn o'Mount.

On the next climb of Corsedardar Hill with 114km to go, the gap still stood at 2:35 but with Jumbo Visma committing their entire team to the chase the break’s advantage slowly dwindled. With 50km to go the five riders had 1:49 but they lost Paluta in the closing stages as Healy impressed with some huge turns on the front.

With 10km to go the gap stood at just 17 seconds before Ballerini had a flat and a crash with 6.5km to go saw a number of riders fall and lose contention with the peloton. Healy and Carpenter were the last riders to be caught with just over 4km to go before Alex Dowsett took off with 2,000m remaining.

Movistar brought the former UCI Hour Record holder back before the sprint teams lined out on the front. He may not have had any teammates but Van Aert surfed the wheels before latching onto Cavendish and making use of the British rider’s superior leadout. Hayter had been yo-yo-ing near the front but was well placed as the sprint opened up but it was Van Aert who had the power and the composure to seal his fourth stage win and the overall.