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Cycling Weekly

Sport

Alex Lancaster-Lennox

Ally Wollaston clinches Tour of Britain Women General Classification as Lorena Wiebes takes final stage sprint victory

Ally Wollaston Lorena Wiebes Cat Ferguson Tour of Britain Women Britain Tour (Event) Tour of Britain FDJSUEZ Movistar Anna Henderson

FDJ-Suez’s Ally Wollaston clinched the Tour of Britain Women as Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx - Protime) takes the final stage victory in a sprint finish.

Wollaston claimed her first General Classification win after her well-timed third-place finish pushed Movistar’s Cat Ferguson out of the top spot, after crossing the line in seventh.

But it was Wiebes who took the win on the day, redeeming a disappointing tour with a dominant final sprint ahead of Charlotte Kool (Picnic PostNL).

The Tour of Britain Women victor said: “It really came down to the last sprint and there was definitely a moment where I thought ‘I just cannot do this today’, and my teammates really helped me pull it together and pulled me to the front for the final."

“I’m a bit overwhelmed but I’m so happy, I really could not have done it without my teammates,” she added.

How it happened

Following a chaotic day on the Tour during Stage 3, Stage 4 awarded the riders with sunnier and calmer conditions to battle for Tour of Britain Women glory on the final day on the streets of Glasgow.

As the second shortest stage, the city-centre criterium was the flattest day of the tour as the riders navigated the 12 different 90-degree corners, helping to inject pace and lengthen the peloton.

And yet with no breakaway from the peloton across the 82km race, the time bonuses provided by the intermediate sprints became decisive, making for a tense day for all involved.

Ferguson entered the day wearing the green jersey, following a stunning ride under challenging conditions to take the stage victory the day before, but the 19-year-old had New Zealand’s Wollaston breathing down her neck, having started the stage only three seconds in arrears.

Across the three intermediate sprints, Ferguson’s advantage was chipped away, as Wollaston continually pipped the Movistar rider on the line.

The FDJ-Suez rider snatched the penultimate sprint victory in a photo finish to bring her within 1 second of Ferguson, and then stormed ahead to take the final bonus second to enter the remaining 15km with the General Classification level on time.

Britain’s Anna Morris tried to raise the pace with 14km remaining as she headed out to the front solo, but after 6km alone, she was swallowed up by the peloton again and left the riders with 8km to prepare for a final sprint to round out the tour.

But with 3km to go, Lidl-Trek injected pace into the peloton, with two-time race winner Lizzie Deignan leading the team out in her swan song at this race.

Primed in position, Ferguson seemed nailed on to take the GC as Wollaston was nowhere to be seen with the peloton heading through 300m to go.

And yet as Wiebes led the sprint to the line dominantly ahead of Kool, who clung onto her compatriot's back wheel, Wollaston attacked, making up the distance from Ferguson and taking the inside line on the final corner, putting her ahead of the young British rider and closing out the podium.

It was this perfect ride by FDJ-Suez which snatched the overall victory from Ferguson, who was caught off-guard after finishing seventh and four seconds behind in the general classification.