Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) won a wet and wild stage seven of the Tour of Britain. Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) just missed out on yet another win to take second, while Brenton Jones (JLT-Condor) finished third. Groenwegen’s teammate Lars Boom retains the overall lead.
It was the first stage of the race that saw any real attacks outside of the daily breakaway, and with some relatively major hills in the finale, the action started from 80km out. Katusha-Alpecin were perhaps the most active team of the day, sending rider after rider up the road, including Tony Martin, who spent 20km solo at the head of the race before being caught before the day’s final sprint.
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) provided the major threat to Boom’s GC position, attacking on the final climb. His move had looked promising, but the sprinter’s teams behind put paid to it within sight of the flamme rouge.
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First Katusha-Alpecin, then Orica-Scott took to the head of the peloton, but what has been the best leadout of the race so far failed to deliver on the damp roads of Cheltenham. Instead it was Groenewegen who got it right, passing Luka Mezgec by the barriers to hold off a fast-approaching Ewan on the line.
“The stage was very hard but I survived and also GC was important for the team,” Groenewegen said at the post-race press conference. “It was a hard day for the team but I survived it.
“It was a little bit of a freestyle sprint so I sprinted from Caleb Ewan’s wheel and Gaviria, but yeah I saw the finish line and I was thought ‘yeah I can hold it,’” he added. “Yeah I think so [it’s my best year]. If you can win a stage in the Tour de France that’s a really good win so yeah it’s a very good year.”
How it unfolded
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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