Tour of Britain diaries | Stage 7 (ft Colin Sturgess, Rory Townsend, Bob Donaldson, Andy Turner & Ryan Christensen)

09/11/21 • 24 min

The break had its day on Stage 7 and we very nearly had the first-ever stage win by a British Continental team at the Tour of Britain. With plenty to reflect on, our diary dispatches today come from Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, Canyon dhb SunGod pair Rory Towsend and Ryan Christensen, SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling's Andy Turner and Bob Donaldson from the Great Britain team.

Stage summary

Stage 7 from Hawick to Edinburgh was a day for the break. As on stage 6, just getting into the break was a battle in itself, with six riders eventually going decisively clear.

The sextet was Deceuninck–QuickStep pair Yves Lampaert and Davide Ballerini, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo Visma) - all from the WorldTour - together with domestic team riders Matt Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Christopher Blevins (TRINITY Racing).

They built a lead of nearly 10 minutes and were allowed their head coming into Edinburgh as INEOS Grenadiers controlled the gap to ensure the race didn’t come back together to give Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) any opportunity to collect time bonuses to threaten Hayter’s lead.

Blevins was the first to be distanced with 20 kilometres to go on an unclassified climb out of Ford before Lampaert attacked with 8.5 kilometres to go splitting the group. Jorgenson reacted first to get onto the former Belgian champion’s wheel with Gibson putting in a concerted effort to then get across to the pair reaching them with five kilometres remaining.

The trio distanced Eenkhoorn and Ballerini. Coming into Holyrood Park Gibson's World Tour rivals used their experience to force him to lead out the sprint.

Belgian rider Lampaert came around him to take Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s first victory in the race, with Jorgenson in second and Gibson third.

Behind, race leader Hayter finished safely within the peloton to retain his overall lead and move to within a day of becoming the first British winner of the national tour in five years. Our diarist Bob Donaldson also finished with Hayter in the main bunch, while Rory rolled in nearly eight minutes back in 89th.

Rory's teammate Jacob Scott retains both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints jerseys and he will win both providing he finishes the final stage.

Speaking of which, stage 8 is from Stonehaven to Aberdeen over 173 kilometres and incorporates three classified climbs, including the famous climb of Cairn o’Mount early in the stage, as well as three intermediate Eisberg Sprints.

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Stage summary

Stage 7 from Hawick to Edinburgh was a day for the break. As on stage 6, just getting into the break was a battle in itself, with six riders eventually going decisively clear.

The trio distanced Eenkhoorn and Ballerini. Coming into Holyrood Park Gibson's World Tour rivals used their experience to force him to lead out the sprint.

Belgian rider Lampaert came around him to take Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s first victory in the race, with Jorgenson in second and Gibson third.

Rory's teammate Jacob Scott retains both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints jerseys and he will win both providing he finishes the final stage.

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Previous Episode

Tour of Britain diaries | Stage 6 (ft Colin Sturgess, Rory Townsend, Steve Lampier, Bob Donaldson & Andy Turner)

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Welcome to episode six of our Tour of Britain diaries.

The racing was frenetic today, probably the best day yet at the Tour of Britain, a real treat to watch. And we have plenty of treats coming too in this episode. We have dispatches from all three of our regular audio diarists, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, Rory Townsend from Canyon dhb SunGod and Andy Turner from SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling. We welcome Great Britain’s Bob Donaldson on board as a new regular diarist for the rest of the race. And we hear from Saint Piran’s Steve Lampier, who tells us what the race has been like for the Cornish team’s first Tour of Britain start.

Stage summary

Stage 6 of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain crossed the Pennines from Carlisle to Gateshead over 198 kilometres, taking in three first category climbs along the way.

It began at a frenetic pace, with riders and teams knocking six bells out of each other trying to get into the break. Rohan Dennis, Julian Alaphillipe and others were all part of the tussle to get away.

Eventually, a nine-rider group formed consisting of our own Rory Townsend, Mark Cavendish, no less, Cav’s Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate Tim Declerq, Jimmy Janssens of Alpecin-Fenix, Colin Joyce (Rally Cycling), George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), Arkéa-Samic’s Dan McLay, Mark Donovan (Team DSM) and Mason Hollyman (Israel Start-Up Nation). It was a strong group, with Rory the only domestic team rider represented. The group soon decided that Mark Donovan – lying 9th on GC – was too much of a threat to their chances of success, and duly manoeuvred to drop both him and Mason Hollyman.

Rory hoovered up as many ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints points as he could en route, meaning teammate Jacob Scott has now secured the former outright and has a commanding lead in the latter.

The break was caught some way out, however, by a reduced peloton. James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cylcing) then attacked on an uncategorised climb with around 15 kilometres to go, kickstarting a ten-rider move that went all the way to the finish. The move included all the main race favourites, with Wout van Aert sprinting to the win ahead of Ethan Hayter and Julian Alaphillipe. Shaw rolled in with an impressive 5th place. A 20-man group came in 10 seconds behind the leaders that included our diarist Bob Donaldson, Alex Peters (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) and Max Stedman (Canyon dhb SunGod).

Hayter still leads the race overall but he now only has 4 seconds in hand over van Aert with two stages left. Shaw remains the best domestic team rider on GC in 14th.

Sadly, our diarist Andy Turner didn’t finish the stage, one of four withdrawals from the day along with Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling’s Charles Page. And injuries for both Dan Bigham (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) meant that neither began the stage.

The race moves to Scotland tomorrow with a 194.8-kilometre stage from Hawick to Edinburgh with a picturesque route through the Scottish Borders

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Next Episode

Tour of Britain diaries | Stage 8 (ft Colin Sturgess, Tim Elverson, Rory Townsend & Bob Donaldson)

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Welcome to episode 8 of our Tour of Britain diaries, the final chapter covering what has been a thrilling edition of the race.

In this final episode we have some brilliantly thoughtful concluding dispatches from our regular diarists Col Sturgess, Rory Townsend, and Bob Donaldson, plus an interview with Canyon dhb SunGod boss Tim Elverson, neatly bookending things after we published an in-depth interview with Tim on the eve of the race. Our other regular diarist Andy Turner was waylaid today so he send his virtual love across the airwaves to you all instead.

We want to extend our enormous gratitude to all of our regular and ad hoc diarists and contributors to this Tour of Britain diary series. We’ve had some phenomenal feedback from listeners about these episodes and without our diarists and contributors finding time in their busy days to provide us with such insightful dispatches these shows wouldn’t have been possible. So our thanks go out to each and every one of them.

Stage summary

Stage 8 from Stonehaven to Aberdeen took in 173 kilometres of relatively flat roads, bar the famous climb of Cairn o’Mount, placed early on in the stage.

Six riders formed the day’s breakaway, which went almost from the gun. These were TRINITY Racing duo Tom Gloag and Ben Healy, SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling’s William Bjergfelt, stage 2 winner Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling), Michal Paluta (Global 6 Cycling) and Jokin Murguialday from Caja Rural.

The break was allowed little freedom, with several teams eyeing either the stage win or the bonus seconds at the finish. Carpenter and Irish road race champion Healy survived the longest, before being caught in the outskirts of Aberdeen setting up the expected sprint finish.

Alaphilippe led things out for Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) before André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) hit the front, only for Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) to sweep past them both to take the stage and overall victory, thanks to the ten bonus seconds he got on the line.

Overnight race leader Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) finished outside the top ten, missing out on time bonuses and dropping to second overall. As well as the WorldTour pair of Cavendish in third and Gabz Gullaigh (Movistar) in 10th, the top ten featured four domestic team riders. Rory was 6th, his third top ten of the race. Matt Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) backed up his 3rd place yesterday to finish 7th today, Ollie Peckover (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) grabbed his first-ever UCI top ten with 8th and Rory’s teammate Matt Bostock was 9th.

Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod) completed a remarkable week winning both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints classification, the jerseys for which he had held since stage 1. He was rewarded for his efforts by being presented with the Overall Combativity Award for the race.

James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) was the best domestic team rider on GC in 14th. Alex Peters (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling), 21st, and Max Stedman (Canyon dhb SunGod), 25th, were the other two domestic riders in the top 25.

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