Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) confirmed his overall victory at the Tour of Britain by arriving safely at the finish on stage 6 in Felixstowe behind the bunch sprint which was won by Matevž Govekar (Bahrain-Victorious).
It came down to a bunch finish after a breathless day of racing from flag to flag down by the Suffolk coast, with several attacks and windy conditions leading to a chaotic final run for home. The Slovenian proved the fastest after William’s teammate Ethan Vernon lacked the top-end speed to take victory after a strong lead-out from Jake Stewart.
Goverkar hit the front with Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) and Danish champion Rasmus Pedersen (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) in his wheel, however, he held up his effort in a huge gear all the way to the line, with the Dane taking second and the experienced Brit third.
Three-time stage winner Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) was unable to fight for the stage win after being dropped in all the attacks, crashing and eventually abandoning the race, prompting teammate Remco Evenepoel into a series of attacks in the final 15km, however, the double Olympic champion couldn’t find separation from the Israel-Premier Tech and Bahrain-Victorious-led peloton.
Williams’ GC win is his 11th victory as a professional, with Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Tom Donnenwirth (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development) joining him on the overall podium 16 and 36 seconds down respectively.
“It's been a good week and we managed to take everything out of a stage race - a couple of stages and the GC so I'm really happy and proud to have this race. I'm proud of how the boys rode all week, they were fantastic. It's me standing on the podium and winning it but it was definitely a team effort,” said Williams, the first home winner at the Tour of Britain since Steve Cummings in 2016.
“After the Olympics, it was definitely a target of mine to get back into racing and I knew I was coming here in decent form. Luckily I had the legs to show it and pull it off but at the end of the day everything has to go right and everything did go right so I'm really happy.”
How it unfolded
The final stage of the 2024 Tour of Britain saw an aggressive start right from the flag drop outside of Lowestoft on the Suffolk coast, with the riders heading south towards the finish some in Felixtsowe.
Several attacks were launched with the first breakaway group forming in the way of Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Swift and Mathias Bregnhøj (Sabgal / Anicolor), before they were joined by Cole Kessler (Lidl-Trek Future Racing), however, the action was far from done.
As Ineos tried to bolster their position in front with Swift’s cousin Connor Swift also attempting to make the move, Israel-Premier Tech showed their intentions, happy to try and form a small break they could control to ensure Williams took victory and Vernon could go for the sprint.
There were big countermoves launched but the one that successfully bridged the gap was made up of French duo Antoine L'Hote (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development) and Samuel Leroux (Van Rysel-Roubaix), who made it a group of six in front.
But as strong as this move seemed, more moves from Tim Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) saw the chasing peloton close to the gap almost by accident with 128km to go, bringing things back together and causing a new wave of surges.
Soudal-QuickStep were the other team trying to control things so three-time stage winner Paul Magnier could go for a fourth in what was due to be another sprint finish, and they were happy to let the next small group go.
It was formed of Pidcock and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), who bridged across to a duo of Jacob Scott (REMBE Sauerland) and Bregnhøj, who moved into the virtual lead momentarily when the break’s lead grew past the two-minute mark, having started the day 1:59 down.
With QuickStep and Israel-Premier Tech taking over control, things calmed until there was a key change of direction inside 90km to go past Framlingham and DSM-Firmenich PostNL tried to use the wind to their advantage.
Going from headwind to crosswind favoured their efforts but it was hard to split things, although this did put a lot of riders on the back foot, notably Magnier, who missed the split with Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe desperately working to bring him back into contention.
This brutal pace from DSM ended the new four-man group’s day out in front and once again reignited a new wave of attacks after an already breathless opening few hours of racing.
Eventually, a new big group of riders formed at the front in anticipation of a reduced bunch finish and Magnier hadn’t made it, prompting Israel, Uno-X and Bahrain all to work as they had sprinters capable of winning without the powerful young Frenchman present.
Magnier would abandon the race due to a crash later on, leaving QuickStep to try and win the stage in a different way. This was taken up largely by Evenepoel, honouring the gold accents and bike he was on as Olympic champion with a series of big surges on every uphill road.
But he was marked out brilliantly by Bilbao for Bahrain and Jake Stewart for Israel, to ensure things came down to a bunch finish in Felixstowe.
Israel-Premier Tech had the next best lead-out after Uno-X but found themselves on the front with Stewart at the 350m to-go mark. But this was too early for Vernon, who had to open up in the wind with a long way to go.
The Brit faded and was easily powered past by Govekar, whose grinding sprint in a huge gear saw him hold off the charge coming from Pedersen and Swift who rode in his slipstream but couldn’t round him in the final 25 metres.
Results
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