Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) doubled up to take his second win in a row and retain his lead in the general classification after another Jumbo-Visma masterclass on stage 2 of the Tour of Britain.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Report
Another glorious late summer’s day welcomed the peloton for stage 2 of the Tour of Britain as it lined up for the shortest stage of the race (the shortest road stage at the race since 2006), a 110km circuit starting and finishing in Wrexham.
Finn Crockett (Saint Piran), Tour of Britain jersey-winning specialist Jacob Scott (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Callum Ormiston (Global 6), and Abram Stockman (TDT-Unibet) formed the early break, allowed to escape relatively unchallenged.
Jumbo-Visma’s Jos van Emden and Steven Kruijswick carefully controlled the chase. The break were never allowed more than a minute’s advantage, with the gap hovering around 30 seconds most of the time. Indeed, the break appeared to know its efforts were doomed early on, Finn Crockett rhetorically asking the TV moto at one stage, “This isn’t much fun, is it?”
2023 Tour of Britain – Stage 2: Wrexham to Wrexham (109.9km) – Callum Ormiston of Team Global 6 Cycling, Finn Crockett of Team Saint Piran, Abram Stockman of Team TDT Unibet Cycling and Jacob Scott of Team Bolton Equities Black Spoke in the breakaway. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
The break just about stayed out long enough to compete for the only categorised climb of the day at Eyton, at 19km to go. Crockett took maximum points, with Scott in second and Stockman in third. Scott’s teammate James Fouche, the leader of the Pinarello mountains competition finished fourth, claiming one point, having charged across from the peloton just a few hundred metres out from the top of the modest climb.
Fouche and Scott dropped back into the closing peloton at this point, leaving just Crockett and Stockman out front, the peloton well within sight. Stockman took the intermediate sprint unchallenged, with Crockett in second. Not long after, with 12.5km still remaining, it was all over for the break as the catch was made.
A hectic, twisty, nervy final few kilometres ensued, with a speeding peloton negotiating road furniture, tight turns, pinch points and each others’ elbows. Tobias Lund Andresen of Team DSM hit the deck hard as he came off worse after brushing shoulders with Kooij, a number of other riders narrowly avoiding coming down with him.
This left a handful of Jumbo-Visma and Bora-Hansgrohe riders with a slight gap ahead of the rest of the bunch as they hurtled into the final two kilometers. Edoardo Affini and then Wout Van Aert led Kooij out perfectly from the front, too well-positioned and too powerful for their rivals, enabling Kooij to surge to his tenth win of the season.
2023 Tour of Britain – Stage 2: Wrexham to Wrexham (109.9km) – Olav Kooij of Team Jumbo Visma (Wearing the Leaders Jersey) Wins Stage 2 of the 2023 Tour of Britain in Wrexham with Danny Van Poppel of Team Bora Hansgrohe in second and Wout van Aert of Team Jumbo Visma in third. Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
Danny Van Poppel (BORA-Hansgrohe) was second with a smiling van Aert third.
Fouche still leads the Pinarello mountains competition, Kooij heads the cottages.com points and the young rider classifications, while Vernon is the highest-ranked British rider on GC.
Stage 3 takes the peloton to the other side of the country, with a flat 154km from Goole to Beverley. Given his form and his team’s strength, who would bet against Kooij to make it a hat-trick?
Brit Watch
Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) was once again the highest-placed Brit, the 23-year-old sprinter and track specialist placing sixth. The young GB team couldn’t quite match the firepower of the WorldTour teams in the finale, so Vernon did well in the circumstances to finish close to another top five.
Jake Scott has made himself a Tour of Britain jersey specialist over the years. He is a two-time winner of the mountains competition and a past winner too of the sprints classification. He picked up his first mountains points today and between him and his teammate James Fouche, the Bolton Equities Black Spoke team are already beginning to look like the favourites for the Pinarello mountains competition.
Finn Crockett (Saint Piran) should be pleased with his showing today, taking maximum mountains points to make the most of a day when the break never had a realistic prospect of making it to the finish. The Scot has had a tumultuous season after the collapse of the AT85 Pro Cycling, so even making it to the Tour Of Britain is a victory of sorts.
Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) doubled up to take his second win in a row and retain his lead in the general classification after another Jumbo-Visma masterclass on stage 2 of the Tour of Britain.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Report
Another glorious late summer’s day welcomed the peloton for stage 2 of the Tour of Britain as it lined up for the shortest stage of the race (the shortest road stage at the race since 2006), a 110km circuit starting and finishing in Wrexham.
Finn Crockett (Saint Piran), Tour of Britain jersey-winning specialist Jacob Scott (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Callum Ormiston (Global 6), and Abram Stockman (TDT-Unibet) formed the early break, allowed to escape relatively unchallenged.
Jumbo-Visma’s Jos van Emden and Steven Kruijswick carefully controlled the chase. The break were never allowed more than a minute’s advantage, with the gap hovering around 30 seconds most of the time. Indeed, the break appeared to know its efforts were doomed early on, Finn Crockett rhetorically asking the TV moto at one stage, “This isn’t much fun, is it?”
The break just about stayed out long enough to compete for the only categorised climb of the day at Eyton, at 19km to go. Crockett took maximum points, with Scott in second and Stockman in third. Scott’s teammate James Fouche, the leader of the Pinarello mountains competition finished fourth, claiming one point, having charged across from the peloton just a few hundred metres out from the top of the modest climb.
Fouche and Scott dropped back into the closing peloton at this point, leaving just Crockett and Stockman out front, the peloton well within sight. Stockman took the intermediate sprint unchallenged, with Crockett in second. Not long after, with 12.5km still remaining, it was all over for the break as the catch was made.
A hectic, twisty, nervy final few kilometres ensued, with a speeding peloton negotiating road furniture, tight turns, pinch points and each others’ elbows. Tobias Lund Andresen of Team DSM hit the deck hard as he came off worse after brushing shoulders with Kooij, a number of other riders narrowly avoiding coming down with him.
This left a handful of Jumbo-Visma and Bora-Hansgrohe riders with a slight gap ahead of the rest of the bunch as they hurtled into the final two kilometers. Edoardo Affini and then Wout Van Aert led Kooij out perfectly from the front, too well-positioned and too powerful for their rivals, enabling Kooij to surge to his tenth win of the season.
Danny Van Poppel (BORA-Hansgrohe) was second with a smiling van Aert third.
Fouche still leads the Pinarello mountains competition, Kooij heads the cottages.com points and the young rider classifications, while Vernon is the highest-ranked British rider on GC.
Stage 3 takes the peloton to the other side of the country, with a flat 154km from Goole to Beverley. Given his form and his team’s strength, who would bet against Kooij to make it a hat-trick?
Brit Watch
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.