Stevie Williams powered to the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men second stage victory from a three-up sprint after an attritional day of racing from Darlington to Redcar.
The second stage of the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men saw riders tackle 152.1km with 2,216m of climbing in the Tees Valley and North York Moors National Park, with the 28-year-old Welshman, riding for the Israel - Premier Tech team taking his first win in his home tour.
As soon as the flag dropped under the watchful gaze of Darlington’s historic clock tower, the peloton got straight into the action with a flurry of attacks. A few small breaks managed to get away inside the first 20km, but nothing was able to stick.
After a number of attacks, a break finally managed to get established, including Nickolas Zukowsky (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), James McKay (Saint Piran), Laurent Gervais, Cade Bickmore (both Project Echelon Racing), Callum Thornley, Dean Harvey (both TRINITY Racing), Louis Sutton (Great Britain Cycling Team), Baptiste Veistroffer (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team). The eight-man breakaway had a gap of 3:34 with 120km remaining. Zukowsky took the first sprint points of the day ahead of McKay as the head of the race entered Stokesley.
The Soudal Quick-Step team, of stage one winner and race leader Paul Magnier, led the charge in the chasing peloton as the riders started on the undulating terrain after a flat, fast start.
Entering the first categorised climb of the day with Ugglebarnby Moor averaging 9%, the break just dipped under three minutes as a chasing group of six riders broke free, with Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers) looking particularly active.
King of the Mountain leader Thornley claimed maximum points at the head of the race, extending his advantage ahead of Bickmore and Gervais. Behind, Foss was setting a blistering pace for yesterday’s fourth place finisher Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers), with the peloton reducing the gap to 1:41 as they crested the climb.
The chasing group established itself with Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Joey Rosskopf (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Oliver Peace (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Joe Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) and Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) getting stuck in as INEOS Grenadiers putting in more attacks.
Reaching the second climb of the day at Raw Pasture Bank at 1.7km and an average gradient of 6.7%, Thornley took the top 10 points once again to extend his lead even further, well supported by teammate Harvey in second.
The peloton were still 1:11 behind the chasing group and 1:55 behind the leading break as they came to the third and final King of the Mountain climb of the day on Lythe Bank.
Averaging 9% for 3.6km, with under 50km to go, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) attacked from the main peloton, taking Pidcock, Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) and Williams with him. As Thornley took maximum points once again, the Evenepoel bunch bridged over to the chasing group, while Pidcock was unable to hold the pace and had to battle on alone.
On the descent, the pace from Evenepoel meant they caught the leaders to make a front group of 15. The pace continued to remain high with Alaphilippe storming from the front. Swift dropped back to assist Pidcock in his efforts to bridge over, with Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) sitting on their wheels with 43km remaining.
Evenepoel once again took to the front to string the bunch out further, with a gap of 1:30 to the peloton inside the final 40km as the INEOS Grenadier riders dropped back into the main bunch.
Alaphilippe then attacked from the front to breakaway and form a group of seven riders, including Onley, Williams, Blackmore, Alaphilippe, Sutton, Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Veistroffer (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale DT), with Evenepoel and Jake Stewart (Israel - Premier Tech) bridging over with 26km remaining.
Attacks continued to rock the front of the race, with Onley forming a small gap before being foiled, and a counter-attack from Alaphilippe was also quickly shut down as the riders entered 15km to go.
The final ascent up Saltburn Bank saw Williams attack hard, with Onley the only rider to respond. The pair worked together well, with Alaphilippe chasing solo behind. The French rider eventually bridged over with 7km remaining, racking up a lead of 20 seconds.
Entering the final straight to the finish, it was a real cat and mouse sprint to the line, with the riders watching each other before Alaphilippe bit first. The Frenchman was unable to match the power of Williams though, with the Welsh rider powering to the win as Onley took third. The chasing bunch saw Blackmore get the better of Evenepoel 20 seconds back.
Williams’ win catapults him into the lead on the general classification, while Thornley’s climbing antics sees him extend his King of the Mountain advantage. A third place finish today was enough to see Onley take the best young rider jersey, while Julius Johansen (Sabgal/Anicolor) retained the lead in the points classification. The attacking efforts from Evenepoel saw him awarded the Combativity award.
Taking his third win of the year, Williams said:
“It’s really good to get my hands in the air. It was a really tough day out, especially the last hour when the race opened up. I think the way we rode was in such a way that we always had numbers everywhere and we showed that in the final, so I’m over the moon.
“The climb was stacked and the finish as well so it’s good to see people out cheering and supporting the race and us riders. That always gives us an extra bit of motivation especially on the climbs.
“The aim now is to try and hold onto the jersey - it’s not the easiest job in the world. It takes a lot of things going right and a strong team. We have a strong team so hopefully everything goes right on the road and we’ll see what happens in the next few days.”
Speaking after the stage, Scottish rider Onley said:
“It was a nice day of racing. The final opened up quite early with a bigger group, we were fortunate to have Ollie [Peace] in there so when the stronger guys went on the last categorised climb it was really useful to have him there to help pace for a bit. From there, it was whittling down all the time and I managed to get away with Stevie [Williams] and [Julian] Alaphilippe which kept things a little more simple which I liked.
“Tomorrow is not suited so well to me and it is sprints after that but maybe there will be opportunities. Stevie is obviously a smart and strong rider, I’ve raced against him quite a bit this year and I know his strengths so I’ll try and look for opportunities.”
Stage three on Thursday 5 September sees the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men return to South Yorkshire for the first time since 2007. The 166-kilometre stage will take in all four boroughs of South Yorkshire (Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield), starting from Arundel Gate in Sheffield city centre at 11am, and finishing on County Way in Barnsley, with live coverage on ITV4 from 10:45am.
