Four stages into the Tour of Britain and the score is two wins for Sky and two for Etixx-QuickStep after Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria scorched along the finishing straight in Blyth to take victory and reveal his talent to European fans.
It was Gaviria’s fifth win of the season after two each in the Tour de San Luis and the Czech Cycling Tour. But it was the most impressive because of the way in which he accelerated clear away from some major sprint names who are close to their best form with the Worlds just a couple of weeks away.
After Sky set the pace coming into the final two kilometres for double stage winner Elia Viviani, Lotto-Soudal’s train powered through in the final 1500 metres to set up Andre Greipel. The German made his move from 200 metres out, but had no response when Gaviria flashed by on his right to leave Greipel and Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) some distance back in his wake.
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"It was a team victory," said Gaviria. "Mark [Cavendish] put me into position ahead of him and when the sprint began I simply went for it and gave everything that I had to take the victory."
Movistar’s Juan José Lobato became the first rider in this race to retain the yellow jersey as he finished in the pack behind Gaviria. But Boasson Hagen cut the Spaniard’s advantage to just half a dozen seconds thanks the four bonus seconds he claimed for third place.
But the day was all about Gaviria and Etixx-QuickStep. Although it didn’t begin well for the Belgian team, with stage two winner Petr Vakoc not starting as a result of the injuries he picked up in a crash towards the end of stage three, it ran to script from then on.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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