On top of Warwickshire’s answer to Box Hill, Mathieu van der Poel scored a second and probably decisive stage win in the penultimate round of his week-long duel with the Italian Matteo Trentin. He strengthened his grip on the Tour of Britain and, after his stage win in Kendal on Tuesday, cemented his status as one of the favourites for the world road race championships in Harrogate on 28 September.
After a circuitous 185km from Warwick – essentially a very large lap of Coventry – the stage boiled down to the last of three ascents of the mile-long climb to this landmark in the heart of England, where the crowds perched on a sun-bleached hilltop by an extinct windmill and a former Anglo-Saxon cemetery.
The British national champion, Ben Swift, and the Norwegian Amund Grøndal Jansen made an initial surge forward after crossing the cattle grid at the foot of the climb, only for Van der Poel to burst through between the pair, with only one rider able to hold the flying Dutchman. That man was Trentin, clad in the blue jersey of points leader, who sat tight on Van der Poel’s wheel, and after the pair opened a small but decisive gap, the Italian sprinter should, on paper, have simply sped past to win.
Instead, as they passed the 100 metres to go mark, where the gradient eased slightly, Van der Poel gained a second wind, and Trentin slipped backwards with a resigned look. As his Dutch rival punched the air, in the knowledge that he now has a realistic chance of taking the overall title on Saturday, Trentin spread his arms wide in resignation.
So intense was Van der Poel’s effort that when he came to a halt after crossing the line, he prostrated himself across the crowd barriers; as Trentin rode past he gave his nemesis a slap on his lycra-clad rump, a gesture that was far more respectful than it sounds.
“I didn’t know who was on my wheel, but I guessed it might be Trentin,” said Van der Poel. “When I went first I was too far back, it was a hard sprint to get some space, and then I took a few seconds to recover before the final 200m.”
Victory here, and a successful assault on the stage’s time bonus sprints – where he gained five seconds to Trentin’s two – leaves Van der Poel with a 12sec overall lead on the Italian going into Saturday’s closing stage around Manchester to a finish on Deansgate.
There are bonus seconds on offer at the three intermediate sprints and at the relatively flat finish, which will favour another Dutchman, Dylan Groenewegen, if he can survive the climb of Ramsbottom Rake at 72km; the Jumbo-Visma rider is going for his fourth stage of the race and between him and Van der Poel it has been slim pickings for the rest.
