The Tour of Britain 2018 drew to a close yesterday with Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) taking the overall victory after eight stages of action-packed racing across some of Britain’s toughest but most beautiful roads.
A lineup that included Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and Giro d’Italia winner Chris Froome (Team Sky), Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) guaranteed some top-level racing across all eight stages as the WorldTour competed against the UK’s top domestic talent.
The race got off to a fast start in Wales as Greipel took his first win of the week, proving too quick for Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and Gaviria. Day two then proved one for the breakaway as Mitchelton-Scott’s Cameron Meyer took the victory, holding off the speeding peloton with Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) who assumed the race lead.
Stage 3 was a fast and furious loop around Bristol that prevented breakaway’s from forming but encouraged plenty of attacks from GC contenders. Eventually, Alaphilippe managed to take the stage in a reduced bunch sprint as the top 10 as plenty of riders found themselves dropped from overall contention.
Greipel then proved that age is but a number as the 36-year-old took stage number 2 of the week into Royal Leamington Spa on stage 4.
The potentially race-decisive team time trial up Whinlatter Pass was dominated by a Roglic-led LottoNL-Jumbo who proved a class apart in the 16km race against the clock. The boys in yellow put 16 seconds into closest competitors Quick-Step, subsequently shifting Roglic into the race lead.
While the TTT moulded the GC, the summit finish on Whinlatter a day later decided it. At the base, the Quick-Step Floors one-two punch of Bob Jungels and then Alaphilppe proved too much from Roglic, who found himself dropped in the final kilometre.
Ultimately it was Wout Poels (Team Sky) who took victory atop Whinlatter but it was Alaphilppe who had done enough to grab the leader’s jersey with just two days remaining.
Saturday’s stage to Mansfield was contested in grim conditions. The rain fell and the peloton looked bleak. It was even bleaker once Ian Stannard (Team Sky) had escaped its grasp and before long it was clear another victory was on the cards for the breakaway.
Stannard dropped Nils Politt (Katusha-Alepcin) in the run to town to take Britain’s first victory of the week and salvage a difficult season for the Essex born domestique.
The final day in London town was bathed with late-summer sunshine as the remaining peloton flew for 77km around the central streets. Ewan managed to seal off his final year with Mitchelton-Scott with a kiss, winning for the second consecutive occasion in London, a victory that clearly meant a lot to Aussie on the move.
All images courtesy of SWPIX and Sweetspot