Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) returned to winning ways on the Queen stage of the Tour of Britain Men, taking victory atop The Tumble on the penultimate day of action in Wales.
The Belgian was part of a large group that came to the line together on the final climb, with Evenepoel launching his sprint inside the final few hundred metres and charging to the line to secure a first victory since his time trial win at this year's Tour de France.
Visma-Lease A Bike's Thomas Gloag came across the line second, with compatriot Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) – who looked favourite to take the stage earlier in the climb – rounding out the podium.
"The first time up the climb, we wanted to see how it went. We went quite fast, but then the last 3km, the wind was blowing quite hard in the face, and I quickly realised that we had to wait for the sprint," said Evenepoel after his victory.
"It was going to be quite difficult to get away – you could also see that when Sivakov and Onley and the Bahrain guy went off, they kind of blew back. Ilan [Van Wilder] also did a great job bringing them back, and then it was up to me to have a sprint. I know after a tough day and a hard climb, that I still have a good sprint, so I just focused on my sprint, tried it and went out with the win, so it's good.
"The first eight minutes of the climb we rode really hard, really high pace, and after that it was a bit of a cat and mouse game – jumping, waiting, and seeing how everything goes. With the strong headwind, we needed to be smart, and it turned out to be a good tactic.
At just two seconds down, Evenepoel will be going for the overall victory on Sunday's Cardiff finale, but isn't going to throw caution to the wind to do so, with goals such as the Road World Championships in Rwanda in mind.
"I'll try to go for the green jersey. A lot of rain is predicted, so it's going to be tricky," said Evenepoel. "I'm not going to risk my life, of course, but to go out with the GC win, it would be a really good confidence boost for me after a long period out of competition. We're just going to give it a last big shot tomorrow and see how it finishes.
"Everything is going smoothly, every day I'm recovering well. Numbers are good, feeling is good, everything is going very well, so I'm very happy with that."
Overall leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) finished in the lead group and retains the race lead despite missing out on bonus seconds. Evenepoel has moved within striking distance, however, while Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) is a further two seconds in arrears, and Onley sits fourth in GC on eight seconds.
How it unfolded
The 133.6km stage 5 rolled out of Pontypool with five categorised climbs on the agenda, including two ascents of the first-category climb of The Tumble (5.5km at 7.3%), where the day would ultimately finish.
Several big names attempted to force their way into the day's early breakaway, including local favourite Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). However, the Welshman, despite being on a farewell tour at the men's Tour of Britain this week, was not offered the luxury of entry into the breakaway.
Nine riders were allowed to push on up the road, though, with the group forming on the second second-category climb of the day, Itton Hill.
It consisted of Rafael Reis (Anicolor / Tien 21), Noa Isidore (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Patrick Boje Frydkjær (Lidl-Trek Future Racing), Finlay Tarling (Israel-Premier Tech Academy), Henrik Pedersen (Uno-X Mobility), Frederik Frison (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Axel Huens (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), and Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise).
Vercouillie extended his lead in the King of the Mountains classification, scooping up 14 points on the three early climbs as the break pushed their advantage out to above two minutes.
Yet, as The Tumble came into view, the gap began to dwindle, thanks in large part to the work of Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) as he guided the GC leader Romain Grégoire up the first-category climb.
Reis, Isidore and Boje Frydkjær were the final three escapees to survive the brutish gradients and were eventually reeled in on the long descent.
This initiated a counterattack in the peloton with 40km remaining, as Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets) attacked and was swiftly joined by Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise). The duo built up an advantage of around a minute as the route took them back through the start town of Pontypool before heading back to the climb for the stage 5 finale.
As the second and final ascent of The Tumble began, the break was rapidly engulfed, though, as Ineos Grenadiers set the pace on the early slopes. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) put in the first dig with 3km remaining, but his effort quickly fizzled out as Evenepoel moved to the front of the select group.
Onley, Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), and Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) looked to have made the race-winning move inside the final 2.5km of The Tumble's slopes as riders behind them stalled.
Yet their own indecision then saw them caught as the final kilometre came into view, with Evenepoel's teammate Ilan van Wilder bridging the two groups back together.
AJ August (Ineos Grenadiers) attempted a late flyer inside the final kilometre, but Evenepoel did well to surf the wheels and launched a well-timed sprint, making it impossible for anyone to draw level.
Results
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