Wout van Aert may have been lead-out man for the first four stages at Tour of Britain but today he stepped out of the shadow of young Jumbo Visma team mate, Olav Kooij, to take victory into Felixstowe and also seize the race leader's jersey.
His finishing solo effort, into a headwind in the final kilometre, forced the first time gap at the front of the race. He claimed victory by three seconds from the chasing pack; Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) and Danny van Poppel (Bora-hansgrohe) taking 2nd and 3rd.
Kooij, who won the first four stages after brilliant lead-outs from Van Aert, today repaid the favour. On the final corner, before the riders swung onto the long finishing straight, Van Aert was on the front, with Kooij on his wheel. However, when Kooij deliberately freewheeled around the corner, Van Aert was gone off the front.
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Kooij's hanging back allowed a small gap to appear to Van Aert on the front. And once that gap was a few lengths, Van Aert put his head down on the exit of the corner, before a huge seated effort all the way to the line. As the gap opened, exiting the corner, there was slight confusion among the riders all queueing up on Kooij's wheel in anticipation Van Aert was about to lead him out again all the way to the line.
While Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) stepped up, hitting the front in a bid to bring back Van Aert, the man in yellow and black was long gone. He kept the gas on until he crossed the line, clearly riding for every second to finally force a time gap on this race of bunch sprints so far.
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Mullen, who was working for Van Poppel, finished 69th at 20 seconds while compatriot and team mate, Sam Bennett, was 73rd at 34 seconds. Kooij, who was leading the race today and whose biggest contribution on the stage was holding back on the final corner, rolled over the line in the bunch, in 24th place, celebrating Van Aert's brilliant win.
Former Irish road race champion, Rory Townsend (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), finished in the bunch, in 57th place, three seconds down on Van Aert. Townsend remains the best placed Irishman in the general classification, now 14th at three seconds.
Today's outcome means Jumbo Visma has won all five stages so far and now leads the race overall with Van Aert and the points classification with 21-year-old Kooij. Tomorrow's 146km stage from Southend-on-Sea to Harlow looks like another one for the Van Aert-Kooij train.
