Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) won a thrilling final stage 6 of the Lloyd’s Tour of Britain in Cardiff on Sunday, sprinting to victory after the day’s breakaway was caught in the final 50m. Finishing in the leading group, Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) hung on to take the general classification win.
After an illustrious 20-year career, the day also saw Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) roll out for his final race on home roads, saying farewell to pro cycling.
The stage was dominated by a four-man breakaway, which went clear after a combative opening, with three of them holding on into the final, a large group crossing them down almost on the line, with Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) finishing second and breakaway rider Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) in third.
Coming inside the final 10km of the 113km stage, the short but very steep climb of Caerphilly Mountain should have proved decisive, and though a small group of general classification riders emerged over the top, they were initially unable to catch the three breakaway riders.
Grégoire had a two-second lead on the GC going into the stage but finished 13th, holding onto his lead and taking the overall.
With the time gaps unchanged from Saturday’s fifth stage, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) was second overall and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) was in third, four seconds down.
“It’s crazy, I’m really happy with this win, it’s incredible to win a general classification in a race like this, it’s something great in my career, and to win ahead of Julian and Remco makes it even bigger, so I’m just happy,” Grégoire said after the race.
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“It was really close this morning, to be honest, I was nervous because I knew I could win, but I could also be 10th tonight. It was really close, but I felt good. I had good legs on the climb, and after, I managed to have a sprint finish to get the bonus for the sprinter, and everything went really well.
“It was the first race of the hard race block during September with Grande Bretagne and then Luxembourg and then the World Championships, so starting with a victory like this will give me a lot of confidence, and I hope I get another victory during this block.”
Riding the final race of his long and storied career, Thomas dropped from the peloton on the opening slopes of Caerphilly Mountain. He rode home with some of his teammates at his side and crossed the line to a round of applause from those around him.
Geraint Thomas bids farewell to pro cycling in Cardiff at the Tour of Britain Men (Image credit: SWPix)
How it unfolded
After Saturday’s queen stage, the Tour of Britain concluded with another lumpy day in South Wales, with a short, 112.2km stage between Newport and Cardiff. The route headed north into the valleys, climbing Mynydd Bedwellte before heading south towards the country’s capital, Caerphilly Mountain, providing a significant sting in the tail.
On his final day racing before retirement, Thomas was among the early attackers, but others were too keen to get up the road, and the Welshman was brought back. The opening kilometres were high-paced, even Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who began the day only two seconds from the overall race lead, pushing the pace on the front.
The Breakaway of Mats Wenzel (Equipo Kern Pharma), Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates – XRG) Fred Wright (Bahrain – Victorious), Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) taking the KOM points (Image credit: SWPix)
A number of others tried their luck, either alone or as part of a small group, and finally, with 25km done, Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Mats Wenzel (Kern Pharma) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) were allowed to get away.
When the Groupama-FDJ team of overall leader Grégoire set to work on the front of the peloton, the four leaders were allowed a lead of around 2:10, where it settled.
That gap began to reduce on the approach to the Mynydd Bedwellte climb, which, while not too challenging in terms of gradient, was narrow, and 40 seconds was lopped off the breakaway’s advantage.
As the race turned and headed south, both Wenzel and Johansen suffered punctures but were able to get back to the breakaway, which led by 1:30 into the final 30km.
Team Picnic PostNL and Groupama-FDJ leading the peloton (Image credit: Getty Images)
With the ascent of Caerphilly Mountain coming just outside the 10km mark, Groupama-FDJ, Tudor Pro Cycling and Visma-Lease a Bike did much of the work, bringing the break to within 40 seconds at the bottom, Soudal-QuickStep taking the lead.
Over the top the breakaway were brought to within 10 seconds by a small group, but there was insufficient cohesion among them to bring the leaders back, and the break worked hard to survive. Only when the chasing group swelled as riders caught back on was a win from the peloton even possible.
Olav Kooij (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) wins stage 6 in Cardiff (Image credit: SWPix)
Owen Rogers is an experienced journalist, covering the sport for various magazines and websites for more than 10 years.
Initially concentrating mainly on the women's sport, he has covered hundreds of race days on the ground and interviewed some of the sport's biggest names.
Living near Cambridge in the UK, when he's not working you'll find him either riding his bike or playing drums.
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