A nail-biting finish in Bath saw four breakaway riders hold off the closing peloton by a matter of inches on the fifth stage of the 2016 Tour of Britain.
New Zealand’s Jack Bauer sprinted to victory after a long day away from the pack following an early breakaway.
Erick Rowsell was the highest British finisher for Madison-Genesis, as he capitalised on his breakaway efforts with a third place finish.
Great Britain Cycling Team’s Dan McLay raced to his third top-ten finish in the 2016 Tour, crossing the line in eighth place for the national team and moving into the lead in the points competition.
Five go on a breakaway
After leaving Aberdare and a series of fruitless attempts, a breakaway group of four riders managed to detach themselves from the peloton, 25km into the race.
Soon joined by Javier Moreno of Movistar, the group of five, also containing Madison-Genesis’ Erick Rowsell, NFTO’s Jonny McEvoy, Jack Bauer of Cannondale and BMC’s Amaël Moinard gradually developed a five minute gap over the pack and with 60km to go, the time showed no sign of coming down.
20km later and the peloton had only managed to eat away one minute of the breakaway’s advantage; each passing kilometre making it more likely that one of the five escapees would take the stage.
The breakaway were losing roughly 30 seconds every 5km and with 20km left to ride and, agonisingly, only had a two minute gap over the peloton.
As the race entered the final 20km, the time gap was creeping down but the breakaway riders pressed on as the GC and sprint teams took closer order at the front of the chasing peloton.
Peloton close in
With 6km to go, the race hit the final climb, the peloton only 50 seconds behind the breakaway; Moinard and Bauer attacked hard up the slope but McEvoy lost contact with the leaders.
With the sprinters’ team swept backwards on the climb, Ian Stannard of Team Sky hit the front of the peloton on the final descent into Bath, chasing the breakaway hard.
Moinard went again, as the breakaway looked to be slowing and the BMC rider threw himself into the final two kilometres of the race, only to be joined again by his fellow breakaway riders.
Bauer made an early strike for home as the four leaders rounded the final bend, with the peloton bearing down on them.
Bauer, followed closely by Moinard and the fast-finishing Caleb Ewan of Movistar chased Rowsell across the line, as the first finisher from the peloton.
That was SO tense following on Twitter! Can't wait for highlights later @TourofBritain #tob2016
— Joanna Rowsell Shand (@JoRowsellShand) September 8, 2016
"I did not really plan on being in the breakaway today," said stage winner Bauer.
"I had good legs out there and luckily I had more than the three other guys.
"I was either going to win or finish last; I dug really deep."
