Tour of Britain 2021 – Stage 5 [LAST 10 KM]

September 9, 2021

Tour of Britain 2021 – Stage 5 – Alderley Park – Warrington : 152,2 km

After a one-year hiatus the Tour of Britain is back, ready and raring to kickstart many riders’ preparations for the upcoming World Championships. With a dynamic eight-day route that features stages in England, Wales and Scotland, this year’s race is one of the most ‘complete’ tours of Britain ever seen. Add to that a star-studded start list which contains the likes of Julian Alaphilippe, Wout van Aert and Mark Cavendish and you have all the makings of a truly memorable edition. The Tour of Britain is the UK’s flagship stage race and one of the most important warm-up events on the calendar for those riders with lofty, end-of-season goals. Back for the first time since 2019 due to a COVID-19-enforced hiatus, the race will – once again – serve as a testing ground for prospective World Champions. The eight-day race runs from September 5th to September 12th and features stages as far south as Penzance and as far north as Aberdeen. As the riders make their long trek north, they’ll tackle three stages for the sprinters, a decisive team time trial and four demanding hilly stages that cover quintessentially British terrain.

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) bounced back into the overall lead at the Tour of Britain, beating the likes of Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-NextHash) and Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in a sprint finish in Warrington.

The 22-year-old Briton, who ceded the lead to Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) atop Great Orme the previous afternoon, regained the blue jersey after the Belgian champion was caught up in a late crash that made for a messy finale.

Only a small group contested the final dash for the line, but Hayter still had to fend off the two fastest flat sprinters in the bunch in Nizzolo and Cavendish. The European champion challenged him on his left but didn’t have the power to get in front, while Cavendish appeared to find himself boxed between the two and didn’t open the taps completely.

As the British veteran free-wheeled to the line, he was passed by Dan McLay (Arkéa-Samsic) and Luke Lampert (Trinity Racing), who placed third and fourth, respectively.

Cavendish’s lack of final acceleration perhaps had something to do with the face that he had to dig deep uphill to close a gap that had opened between the first five riders and the rest of the bunch as a result of the crash, which occurred when two riders slipped out on a left-hand bend with 700 metres to go. One of them was Hayter’s teammate Owain Doull, but the Ineos leader squeezed through alongside Michal Kwiatkowski to emerge in a five-man group with Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Colin Joyce (Rally Cycling), and Lamperti.

Cavendish dragged Nizzolo, McLay and a couple of riders over, but there was a gap back to the next group, which contained race leader Van Aert. The Belgian didn’t hit the deck himself, and was awarded the same time as Hayter given the incident occurred inside the final 3km, but the 10 bonus seconds for the win meant he had to hand back the jersey.

Hayter now leads the race by eight seconds over Van Aert, with Alaphilippe still third but now at 19 seconds.

“I actually backed off Doull. He’d started to drift and I was like ‘this is not good’, and he did crash. The bike was drifting right but I squeezed through on the barrier,” Hayter said.

“I did a good sprint. Nizzolo was coming on my left and I could see a white jersey, but I just put it in the biggest gear and went flat-out to the line.”

How it unfolded

Stage 5 of the Tour of Britain would take the riders on a loop around leafy Cheshire before heading up towards the finish in Warrington at the base of the River Mersey. The 152.2km route featured three solid climbs in the opening half but the latter part of the parlours was largely flat and always likely to bring about a bunch sprint.

There was one significant non-starter in the form of Tony Martin, who was pulled by Jumbo-Visma as a precaution as he continues his comeback from his Tour de France crash. That left the race leader with just three teammates, and it was perhaps for that reason that Jumbo-Visma didn’t partake in the controlling duties in the peloton. Instead, that was left to Cavendish’s Deceuninck-QuickStep, Grepiel’s Israel Start-Up Nation, and Nizzolo’s Qhubeka-NextHash.

The target they were chasing was a five-man breakaway, sparked by Dan Bigham (Ribble-Weldtite) and featuring mountains and sprints classification leader Jacob Scott (Canyon-DhB), who continued his 100 per cent presence in the breakaways so far. The other three companions were Chris Blevins (Trinity Racing), Nickolas Zukowsky (Rally Cycling), and Leon Mazzone (Saint Piran).

The quintet built a lead of three minutes before Scott claimed the early intermediate sprint in Congleton before pipping Zukowsky to the top of the category-3 Blacky Blank climb. The road then tilted uphill towards the day’s second peak of the cat-2 Bottom-of-the-Oven, which played host to a similar two-way battle for the mountains points, with the same outcome. After a descent, it was soon time for the day’s third climb, the cat-3 Bakestonedale Road. This time, Zukowsky didn’t challenge Scott, who gladly helped himself to maximum points for the day.

That final climb topped out just past the half-way mark, and the peloton headed over the top 2:30 in arrears.

After another descent, the road then flattened out and the race entered a pattern, despite the rain coming down to complicate matters. Tim Declercq, Nicolas Dlamini, and Mason Holyman shouldered all the work for QuickStep, Qhubeka, and Israel respectively, while up front Scott helped himself to the final two intermediate sprints to make it a full house of breakaway points.

Things intensified in the final 20km when Sean Bennett replaced Dlamini on the front and injected some new pace. The breakaway soon started to fragment, with Scott the first rider to be dropped when Bigham raised the pace with 17km to go. A few kilometres later, Bigham launched an all-out attack, sailing clear initially. However, the other three worked together to claw their way back, although it was too much for Mazzone, who had to relent.

Bigham, Zukowsky, and Blevins then combined well to hold off the advancing peloton. They were still out front with 10 seconds with 4km to go, whereupon Ineos took over the reins from QuickStep for the run-in. The catch was finally made just inside the 2km-to-go banner, and things were already getting frantic and messy. The wet weather made that late left-handed treacherous and there were hearts in mouths when Doull went down. Remarkably, given the Welshman was second wheel, Hayter came through unscathed and had Kwiatkowski to lead him out.

He had a small hand in that Van Aert was caught behind, and Cavendish and Nizzolo both had to claw their way back just to get in a position to sprint, but that took little away from a significant scalp and the latest milestone in what is fast becoming a breakthrough season for Hayter.

Results :
1 Ethan Hayter (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 3:33:01
2 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Team Qhubeka Assos
3 Daniel McLay (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic
4 Luke Lamperti (USA) Trinity Racing
5 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep
6 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
7 Michal Paluta (Pol) Global 6 Cycling
8 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
9 Gonzalo Serrano Rodriguez (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix
11 Rhys Britton (GBr) Great Britain
12 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
13 Lukasz Owsian (Pol) Team Arkea-Samsic
14 Sergio Roman Martin Galan (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
15 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers
16 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Team Qhubeka Assos
17 Matthew Gibson (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
18 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
19 James Shaw (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
20 David Gonzalez Lopez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
21 Silvan Dillier (Swi) Alpecin-Fenix
22 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma
23 Ben Tulett (GBr) Alpecin-Fenix
24 Ryan Christensen (NZl) Canyon DHB Sungod
25 Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-up Nation
26 Mark Donovan (GBr) Team DSM
27 Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers
28 Thomas Mein (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod
29 Tom Mazzone (GBr) Saint Piran
30 Mikkel Honoré (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep
31 Alex Richardson (GBr) Alpecin-Fenix
32 Tim Naberman (Ned) Team DSM
33 Joey Rosskopf (USA) Rally Cycling
34 Alex Peters (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling
35 Thomas Gloag (GBr) Trinity Racing
36 Connor Swift (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic
37 Robin Carpenter (USA) Rally Cycling
38 Joel Nicolau Beltran (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
39 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) Israel Start-up Nation
40 Josu Etxeberria Azpilikueta (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
41 Simon Wilson (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
42 William Bjergfelt (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling
43 Simon Clarke (Aus) Team Qhubeka Assos
44 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers
45 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team DSM
46 Jon Barrenetxea Golzarri (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
47 Romain Combaud (Fra) Team DSM
48 Gavin Mannion (USA) Rally Cycling
49 Gruffudd Lewis (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
50 George Bennett (NZl) Jumbo-Visma
51 Maximilian Stedman (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod
52 Charles Page (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling
53 James Mitri (NZl) Global 6 Cycling
54 Steve Lampier (GBr) Saint Piran
55 Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-up Nation
56 Oliver Maxwell (GBr) Saint Piran
57 Ethan Vernon (GBr) Great Britain
58 Jimmy Janssens (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix
59 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
60 Max Rushby (GBr) Great Britain
61 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation
62 Gijs Leemreize (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
63 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
64 Matthew Bostock (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod
65 Mauro Schmid (Swi) Team Qhubeka Assos
66 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Rally Cycling
67 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Israel Start-up Nation
68 Daniel Bigham (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:01:04
69 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
70 Christopher Blevins (USA) Trinity Racing
71 Ross Lamb (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:01:33
72 Owain Doull (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers
73 Oliver Stockwell (GBr) Great Britain
74 Robert Doonaldson (GBr) Great Britain
75 Rory Townsend (Irl) Canyon DHB Sungod
76 Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Movistar Team
77 Max Walker (GBr) Trinity Racing
78 Sean Bennett (USA) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:01:50
79 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers
80 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Movistar Team 0:02:03
81 Leon Mazzone (GBr) Saint Piran 0:02:14
82 Ollie Peckover (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling
83 Bradley Symonds (GBr) Saint Piran 0:02:17
84 Nicholas Dlamini (RSA) Team Qhubeka Assos
85 William Tiball (GBr) Great Britain
86 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:48
87 Christopher Latham (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling
88 Nícolas Sessler (Bra) Global 6 Cycling 0:02:56
89 Davide Ballerini (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
90 Ross Holland (GBr) Saint Piran 0:03:19
91 Nils Eekhoff (Ned) Team DSM
92 Kyle Murphy (USA) Rally Cycling 0:03:54
93 Andrew Turner (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:04:03
94 Mason Hollyman (GBr) Israel Cycling Academy
95 Ben Healy (Irl) Trinity Racing
96 Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Movistar Team
97 Jacob Scott (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod
98 Jokin Murguialday (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
99 Hans Becking (Ned) Global 6 Cycling
100 Tim Edvard Pettersen (Nor) Global 6 Cycling 0:04:30
101 Max Kanter (Ger) Team DSM 0:12:11
DNS Tony Martin (Ger) Jumbo-Visma

General Classification after Stage 5 :
1 Ethan Hayter (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 18:17:42
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:08
3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:19
4 Mikkel Honoré (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:29
5 Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-up Nation 0:00:48
6 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:52
7 Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-up Nation 0:01:04
8 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix 0:01:21
9 Mark Donovan (GBr) Team DSM 0:01:42
10 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 0:01:46
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team DSM
12 Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers 0:01:51
13 Gonzalo Serrano Rodriguez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:56
14 James Shaw (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:02:04
15 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:02:11
16 Connor Swift (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:02:20
17 Robin Carpenter (USA) Rally Cycling 0:02:21
18 Gavin Mannion (USA) Rally Cycling 0:02:36
19 Simon Clarke (Aus) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:02:45
20 Silvan Dillier (Swi) Alpecin-Fenix 0:02:54
21 Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Movistar Team 0:03:06
22 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:03:09
23 Lukasz Owsian (Pol) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:03:15
24 Thomas Gloag (GBr) Trinity Racing
25 George Bennett (NZl) Jumbo-Visma 0:03:18
26 Joel Nicolau Beltran (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:03:26
27 Alex Peters (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:03:31
28 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling 0:03:57
29 Maximilian Stedman (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod 0:04:01
30 Sergio Roman Martin Galan (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:04:22
31 Michal Paluta (Pol) Global 6 Cycling 0:04:23
32 Steve Lampier (GBr) Saint Piran 0:05:38
33 Rory Townsend (Irl) Canyon DHB Sungod 0:05:50
34 Oliver Stockwell (GBr) Great Britain 0:05:59
35 Ryan Christensen (NZl) Canyon DHB Sungod 0:06:00
36 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:06:05
37 Josu Etxeberria Azpilikueta (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:06:38
38 Matthew Gibson (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:06:48
39 Tim Declercq (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:06:53
40 James Mitri (NZl) Global 6 Cycling 0:07:04
41 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:07:10
42 Alex Richardson (GBr) Alpecin-Fenix 0:07:25
43 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Ineos Grenadiers 0:07:47
44 Mauro Schmid (Swi) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:07:54
45 Owain Doull (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 0:07:59
46 Max Walker (GBr) Trinity Racing 0:09:08
47 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:09:45
48 Nickolas Zukowsky (Can) Rally Cycling 0:09:59
49 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:10:18
50 Ben Tulett (GBr) Alpecin-Fenix 0:10:46
51 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) Israel Start-up Nation 0:10:50
52 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Israel Start-up Nation 0:11:06
53 Robert Doonaldson (GBr) Great Britain 0:11:25
54 Mason Hollyman (GBr) Israel Cycling Academy 0:11:32
55 Joey Rosskopf (USA) Rally Cycling 0:11:34
56 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Movistar Team 0:13:25
57 Ethan Vernon (GBr) Great Britain 0:14:43
58 Christopher Blevins (USA) Trinity Racing
59 Sean Bennett (USA) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:15:51
60 Davide Ballerini (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:17:12
61 David Gonzalez Lopez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:18:59
62 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:19:46
63 Romain Combaud (Fra) Team DSM 0:20:31
64 Gijs Leemreize (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:21:28
65 Jimmy Janssens (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix 0:22:16
66 Ben Healy (Irl) Trinity Racing 0:22:43
67 Kyle Murphy (USA) Rally Cycling 0:23:04
68 Max Kanter (Ger) Team DSM 0:23:37
69 Thomas Mein (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod 0:24:27
70 Jacob Scott (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod 0:24:37
71 Nicholas Dlamini (RSA) Team Qhubeka Assos 0:26:51
72 Jon Barrenetxea Golzarri (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:27:16
73 André Greipel (Ger) Israel Start-up Nation 0:27:33
74 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:27:42
75 Luke Lamperti (USA) Trinity Racing 0:28:17
76 Leon Mazzone (GBr) Saint Piran 0:28:23
77 Gruffudd Lewis (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:28:31
78 Nils Eekhoff (Ned) Team DSM 0:29:16
79 Ollie Peckover (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:30:03
80 Tim Naberman (Ned) Team DSM 0:30:44
81 Daniel Bigham (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:33:10
82 Nícolas Sessler (Bra) Global 6 Cycling 0:33:23
83 Rhys Britton (GBr) Great Britain 0:34:07
84 Hans Becking (Ned) Global 6 Cycling 0:35:17
85 Jokin Murguialday (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA 0:35:18
86 Matthew Bostock (GBr) Canyon DHB Sungod 0:35:35
87 Daniel McLay (GBr) Team Arkea-Samsic 0:35:42
88 Ross Lamb (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:45:13
89 William Bjergfelt (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:45:34
90 Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Movistar Team 0:47:16
91 Oliver Maxwell (GBr) Saint Piran 0:50:49
92 Simon Wilson (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:51:32
93 Bradley Symonds (GBr) Saint Piran 0:53:13
94 Christopher Latham (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:53:33
95 Ross Holland (GBr) Saint Piran 0:56:25
96 Charles Page (GBr) Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling 0:56:41
97 Andrew Turner (GBr) Swiftcarbon Pro Cycling 0:58:21
98 William Tiball (GBr) Great Britain 0:59:04
99 Tom Mazzone (GBr) Saint Piran 0:59:39
100 Max Rushby (GBr) Great Britain 1:00:58
101 Tim Edvard Pettersen (Nor) Global 6 Cycling 1:10:09