Tim Wellens, Belgian teammate of Tadej Pogacar at UAE Emirates XRG, claimed overall victory in the men’s Tour of Britain after seizing the race lead on Saturday’s fourth stage through the hills of North Yorkshire.
Wellens began the final stage in Earlston with a 21-second advantage over Lewis Askey and extended it to 42 seconds by the finish. The British rider finished second overall following strong performances in the earlier stages, while Ben Wiggins, son of Sir Bradley Wiggins, placed 10th overall.
Their German teammate Nils Politt secured a rare win in Sunday’s final stage as the squad celebrated another overall victory. Five of the team’s riders were part of a select group that 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.”
Saturday’s 165-kilometre stage from Helmsley to Leyburn was won by Cees Bol of the Netherlands, but Wellens did enough on the short sharp climbs of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors to distance Askey and establish 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 again frustrated by inopportune punctures earlier in the race, took the initiative on the windswept moors in an attempt to break UAE Emirates XRG’s grip on the standings, but Wellens was well protected and never seriously threatened.
His stage-winning move from a leading group that included Wiggins came with less than ten kilometres remaining. A race that opened with a tribute from the peloton to Fin Tarling, who died last month in the Volta a Portugal, closed with another emotional moment as Politt pointed to the sky upon crossing the finish line in memory of his grandfather.
The impact of Tarling’s death in August continues to be felt across the sport, and recent lapses in race security, including at both the women’s and men’s Tour of Britain, have intensified the debate.
In response, the sport’s governing body, the UCI, has 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.”
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