Jumbo-Visma flipped the script as the bridesmaid became the bride on Stage 5 into Felixstowe as Wout van Aert took a fabulous win, attacking from the front of the peloton with under a kilometre to go. His surprise move has given him a three-second lead at the head of the general classification.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com
Report
Another bright and sunny day greeted the peloton as Suffolk played host to the fifth stage of the 2023 Tour of Britain, and this flatter circuit on narrower country roads provided a touch more excitement from the off.
Of course, some things remained the same and it was the presence of TDT-Unibet in the first break of the day which allowed the second half of this year’s race to get underway in familiar circumstances.
Just to mix things up slightly, this time it was Hartthijs de Vries who was the orange-and-blue representative. Joined by Jack Brough (Great Britain), James Fouche (Bolton Equities-Black Spoke), Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team’s Kamil Malecki and Saint Piran’s Harry Birchill, the quintet went out on an early slog.
Their move proved to be more of a bit of early-stage excitement rather than the main break of the day, although Fouche did maintain enough of an advantage to take full points in the Pinarello King of the Mountains competition at Freston to extend his grasp on the jersey over TDT-Unibet’s Harry Tanfield.
Picture by Zac Williams/SWpix.com – 07/09/2023 – Cycling – 2023 Tour of Britain – Stage 5: Felixstowe to Felixstowe (192.4km) – The Peloton
Indeed, the day’s longest break finally went clear after that frenetic opening hour, with – surprise, surprise – TDT-Unibet featuring once again. Breaking from tradition, it wasn’t Tanfield this time but his comrade-in-arms from Stage 4’s efforts – Abram Stockman. He was joined by Joey Rosskopf (Q36.5) and Global 6 Cycling’s Callum Ormiston in another quest to win public approval in the Combativity Award battle.
The trio swept up the points from the competitions in the middle portion of the stage, as Stockman took the points at the second KoM at Holbrook and the cottages.com Sprint at Hadleigh, but like most of the other stages in this edition of the race the break didn’t last.
From 100km to go, the peloton – led in most part by those black-and-yellow bumble bees Jumbo-Visma – gently increased the pressure and kept trimming down the break’s lead which had topped out at three minutes.
It took some time, a feed zone around 60km to go allowed the gallant trio to push the lead back up to two minutes, but as the pressure – and the heat – continued to mount the break broke apart at 20km to go. Ormiston ran out of energy and a few kilometres later Stockman dropped off too.
Picture by Zac Williams/SWpix.com – 07/09/2023 – Cycling – 2023 Tour of Britain – Stage 5: Felixstowe to Felixstowe (192.4km) – The Peloton
Trying to go solo, Rosskopf put his remaining scraps of energy into trying to stay out front. He was helped slightly by a roundabout causing confusion for Jumbo-Visma who started to go right rather than swooping round to the left, which caused the whole peloton to slow.
However, the block headwind on the run back into Felixstowe was a challenge too much for the American, and he was caught with just over 7km to go.
In the final 3km, Bolton Equities-Black Spoke, Ineos Grenadiers, Uno-X and Movistar all moved up to the front alongside Jumbo-Visma as the massing peloton negotiated numerous traffic calming measures on the run to the Flamme Rouge.
With 1km to go, Wout van Aert took rivals by surprise as the Dutch team flipped the script and allowed Olav Kooij to take a day off. Van Aert attacked off the front and sustained his sprint all the way to the finish to open up a gap on the chasers behind who were left scrambling to try and provide an answer.
Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) won the sprint for second, a whisker ahead of Danny van Poppel (BORA-hansgrohe).
Van Aert’s flying finish has vaulted him to the top of the General Classification, three seconds clear of Vernon, with Max Kanter (Movistar Team) rounding out the podium.
Picture by Zac Williams/SWpix.com – 07/09/2023 – Cycling – 2023 Tour of Britain – Stage 5: Felixstowe to Felixstowe (192.4km) – The Peloton
Brit Watch
The first break of the day had something of a British feel as Ryedale Grasscrete Grand Prix winner Harry Birchill (Saint Piran) and Jack Brough (Great Britain) both tried to make a move happen early but couldn’t quite make it last. The former is now up into 15th on GC.
Ethan Vernon continues his impressive run in this year’s Tour as he out-sprinted Danny van Poppel to take second and another stage podium. Still not enough to take a win, but he retains second in the GC. The next best-placed Brit is Tom Pidcock, who is seventh overall for Ineos Grenadiers.
Jumbo-Visma flipped the script as the bridesmaid became the bride on Stage 5 into Felixstowe as Wout van Aert took a fabulous win, attacking from the front of the peloton with under a kilometre to go. His surprise move has given him a three-second lead at the head of the general classification.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com
Report
Another bright and sunny day greeted the peloton as Suffolk played host to the fifth stage of the 2023 Tour of Britain, and this flatter circuit on narrower country roads provided a touch more excitement from the off.
Of course, some things remained the same and it was the presence of TDT-Unibet in the first break of the day which allowed the second half of this year’s race to get underway in familiar circumstances.
Just to mix things up slightly, this time it was Hartthijs de Vries who was the orange-and-blue representative. Joined by Jack Brough (Great Britain), James Fouche (Bolton Equities-Black Spoke), Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team’s Kamil Malecki and Saint Piran’s Harry Birchill, the quintet went out on an early slog.
Their move proved to be more of a bit of early-stage excitement rather than the main break of the day, although Fouche did maintain enough of an advantage to take full points in the Pinarello King of the Mountains competition at Freston to extend his grasp on the jersey over TDT-Unibet’s Harry Tanfield.
Indeed, the day’s longest break finally went clear after that frenetic opening hour, with – surprise, surprise – TDT-Unibet featuring once again. Breaking from tradition, it wasn’t Tanfield this time but his comrade-in-arms from Stage 4’s efforts – Abram Stockman. He was joined by Joey Rosskopf (Q36.5) and Global 6 Cycling’s Callum Ormiston in another quest to win public approval in the Combativity Award battle.
The trio swept up the points from the competitions in the middle portion of the stage, as Stockman took the points at the second KoM at Holbrook and the cottages.com Sprint at Hadleigh, but like most of the other stages in this edition of the race the break didn’t last.
From 100km to go, the peloton – led in most part by those black-and-yellow bumble bees Jumbo-Visma – gently increased the pressure and kept trimming down the break’s lead which had topped out at three minutes.
It took some time, a feed zone around 60km to go allowed the gallant trio to push the lead back up to two minutes, but as the pressure – and the heat – continued to mount the break broke apart at 20km to go. Ormiston ran out of energy and a few kilometres later Stockman dropped off too.
Trying to go solo, Rosskopf put his remaining scraps of energy into trying to stay out front. He was helped slightly by a roundabout causing confusion for Jumbo-Visma who started to go right rather than swooping round to the left, which caused the whole peloton to slow.
However, the block headwind on the run back into Felixstowe was a challenge too much for the American, and he was caught with just over 7km to go.
In the final 3km, Bolton Equities-Black Spoke, Ineos Grenadiers, Uno-X and Movistar all moved up to the front alongside Jumbo-Visma as the massing peloton negotiated numerous traffic calming measures on the run to the Flamme Rouge.
With 1km to go, Wout van Aert took rivals by surprise as the Dutch team flipped the script and allowed Olav Kooij to take a day off. Van Aert attacked off the front and sustained his sprint all the way to the finish to open up a gap on the chasers behind who were left scrambling to try and provide an answer.
Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) won the sprint for second, a whisker ahead of Danny van Poppel (BORA-hansgrohe).
Van Aert’s flying finish has vaulted him to the top of the General Classification, three seconds clear of Vernon, with Max Kanter (Movistar Team) rounding out the podium.
Brit Watch
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