For this first hilly stage since the start last Sunday, the peloton experienced a more eventful day than the previous six which all ended with a massive sprint.
This time, the Jumbo-Visma of leader Wout Van Aert wanted to shake up the overall positions and worked for the Belgian, who was very active in the final. It was a little over ten kilometers from the finish in Gloucester that he left the peloton during the last climb of the day to return to the breakaway group.
Wout Van Aert did not manage to continue his effort alone until the finish, around ten riders even came back from behind but without any Jumbo-Visma teammate, the Belgian then becoming the man to beat at the front of the race. In the last kilometer he did make a final solitary attempt but he had clearly exhausted his strength.
The small group which accompanied him, led by the German Nils Pollitt who was working for Dany Van Poppel (already winner on Friday), then came back on him 800 meters from the line to see the Norwegian Rasmus Tiller win the sprint of this group of eleven riders in front of the Dutchman from Bora-Hansgrohe. At the age of 27, he won the 6th success of his career, including two Norwegian national championship titles.
After the archi-domination of the Jumbo-Visma, winners of the first five stages (four with Olav Kooij and one with Wout Van Aert), Tiller offered his team Uno X, which had discovered the Tour de France this year, its 14th victory of the season. Since 2017, no Norwegian has won this Tour of Britain. Only his compatriots Edvald Boasson Hagen (2009, 2017) and Thor Hushovd (2011) had won a stage in this event before him.
Wout Van Aert (12th) retained his leader’s jersey with a minimal lead of three seconds over eleven riders all grouped in the same time overall, before the last stage this Sunday which arrives in Wales, in Caerphilly north of Cardiff .
