On a day when Wout van Aert's lead-out, and Olav Kooij's sprint, was not as strong at Tour of Britain, Danny van Poppel came through to claim victory; the Bora-hansgrohe rider ending the five-stage streak enjoyed by Jumbo Visma.
Van Poppel normally leads out Sam Bennett, though because the Irishman has been below par on this race, the Dutch rider has gotten his chance and today he took it very well. While he looked boxed in just before the finish line in Harlow, he managed to squeeze through to the front and just pip Ethan Vernon of the Great Britain team.
Tord Gudmestad, the young Norwegian rider competing for Uno-X Pro Cycling Team, placed 3rd, with Kooij, who won the first four stages, having to settle for 4th place today. While Kooij has enjoyed very strong long-range lead-outs from Van Aert on this race, the lead-out today was a little flat.
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It seemed Kooij expected Van Aert's effort to continue for a little longer and he hesitated for a fraction of the second to come off his team mate's wheel. He was instantly swamped by the others who were in the hunt for victory.
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Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) placed 19th today, in the same time as his stage-winning team mate, who he helped to victory. Sam Bennett was out of the running, in 79th today at 58 seconds, while compatriot Rory Townsend (Bolton Equities Black Spoke) was 93rd at 2:35.
There is no change in the overall, with yesterday's stage winner Van Aert still at the top of the standings, holding an advantage of three seconds over a group of 53 riders all on the same time.
