Tim Wellens pulls away on last stage to win Tour of Britain

Tim Wellens, teammate to Tadej Pogacar at the UAE Emirates XRG team, took overall victory in the men’s Tour of Britain, after the Belgian rider had decisively snatched the overall race lead on the fourth stage on Saturday, through the hills of North Yorkshire.

Wellens had started the final stage in Earlston 21 seconds ahead of Lewis Askey but extended that advantage to 42sec by the finish. The British rider finished second overall after riding impressively through the earlier stages, while Ben Wiggins, son of Sir Bradley Wiggins, placed 10th overall.

The Belgian rider’s German teammate, Nils Politt, took a rare win in the final stage on Sunday, as Pogacar’s team celebrated another well-executed overall victory after a select group, which included five of their riders, broke clear of the peloton in the Lammermuir hills.

“It was a very successful week,” Wellens said. “We came here for the GC and today we also have this stage victory, so everything’s been perfect.”

The 165-kilometre stage on Saturday from Helmsley to Leyburn was won by Cees Bol of the Netherlands, but the Tour de France stage winner Wellens did enough on the short sharp climbs of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, to distance the overnight leader Askey and take what proved to be an unassailable lead.

“Today we just wanted to defend the leader’s jersey,” Wellens said of the final stage through the Scottish Borders. “We didn’t want to attack, we didn’t want to make a hard race, we just wanted to ride defensively. But then suddenly, in the crosswinds Netcompany Ineos started to ride very hard, so we just followed.”

The British team, whose hopes were frustrated once again by inopportune punctures earlier in the race, took the initiative on the windswept moors, in an attempt to crack UAE Emirates XRG’s hold on the overall standings, but race leader Wellens was well protected and never really looked at risk.

Politt’s stage-winning move from a leading group that included Wiggins, came with less than ten kilometres remaining. A race that began with a tribute from the peloton to Fin Tarling, who died last month in the Volta a Portugal, ended with another poignant moment as Politt pointed to the sky when he crossed the finish line in memory of his grandfather.

The repercussions of Tarling’s death in August continue to be felt across the sport and recent further lapses in race security, including at both the women’s and men’s Tour of Britain, have only intensified the debate.

In response the sport’s governing body, the UCI, has now stressed the “urgent need to put in place, as quickly as possible, a dedicated safety system allowing the real-time location of riders and vehicles to be tracked at all professional road cycling events, starting with those in the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour”.