2016 Tour of Britain Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 of the 2016 Tour of Britain is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Stage 7a
Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) took victory on in the time trial in Bristol on stage 7a of the Tour of Britain. Martin blasted around the 15-kilometre course in a time of 18:06, three seconds faster than Rohan Dennis (BMC) in second place.
It was the first time trial victory outside of the German championships for the former three-time world champion in the discipline since last year's Tour de Romandie.
"To be sincere, I wasn't expecting to go so fast, because it's been a hard week for us, but sometimes when you don’t expect a good performance you do even better," Martin said. "The world’s best time trialists are here and to beat them so close to the World Championships in Qatar gives me a boost of morale and makes me really happy."
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) took third place while Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) posted the fourth fastest time to keep his position at the top of the overall standings with a road stage to come on Saturday afternoon before the finale in London on Sunday.
A damp and dreary start to the day awaited the riders as they set out for the first of two stages in Bristol. Heavy rain in the morning would mean slick roads, making an already difficult and technical course that much harder.
Emiel Wastyn (An Post Chain Reaction) was the first rider off the ramp but his time would soon be surpassed. Alex Dowsett (Movistar) set the early benchmark, completing the course in a brisk time of 18:41. He would be pushed close by Ryan Mullen (Cannondale-Drapac) but the Irishman fell short by just four seconds.
It looked like BMC’s Taylor Phinney had the pace to unseat his former Trek-Livestrong teammate but the American fell afoul of the wet roads and hit the tarmac. Despite his excursion, Phinney was just five seconds behind Dowsett on the line and put himself into provisional third place.
In the end, Dowsett had an hour’s wait in the hotseat before someone would better his time and when it happened the gap was substantial. Tony Martin found 35 seconds on the 15-kilometre route, a time that would be out of reach of the capabilities of most of the remaining riders.\n \n"The course was really nice, but the weather and the rain made it slippery and dangerous, especially as you had to fight for every second and give it your all in the corners," Martin said. "Fortunately, I did a good recon before the start and knew what were the tricky points of this route and how fast I could go."
The competition would pick up again as the general classification riders began rolling down the start ramp just before midday. Dennis pushed the German national champion extremely close, going just three seconds slower. Martin looked calm as ever only letting a brief smile play on his face when the cameras turned their attention to him.
Dumoulin would go a further two seconds slower than Dennis and as the penultimate rider would all but ensure Martin’s victory. There was a brief wait for the final rider Cummings and while he never looked like threatening the stage win, the question remained how close could he keep himself to the likes of Dumoulin and Dennis who started the day less than a minute behind him in the overall standings.
Cummings put in a solid performance to lose just over 10 seconds and keep himself in control of the overall classification.
Stage 7b
Rohan Dennis (BMC) won the penultimate stage of the Tour of Britain with a late attack in Bristol. Dennis, who finished second in the morning time trial, powered away in the final kilometres to take victory by just six seconds.
\nWith his stage victory, Dennis managed to close the gap to the race to 26 seconds but Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) finished with the main group to keep hold of his yellow jersey with just one stage to go.
After a rainy morning time trial, the sun came out for the riders on Saturday afternoon for the second of two stages in Bristol. The peloton set off for six laps of the 15-kilometre course. Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) set out his intentions early in the neutral zone, taking to the path to move up and ensure his place at the front of the peloton for the real racing to start.
Greipel then shot off the front as soon as the bunch hit kilometre zero but he was brought back into the fold. Several other riders tried their hand on the technical course, including Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep), but to no avail.
Greipel eventually got his wish of making it into a breakaway, racing off the front with Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Boy van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo) and Diego Rubio (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) towards the end of the first lap. Karol Domagalski (One Pro Cycling) tried to bridge the gap but was eventually drawn back into the peloton.
The four leaders continued to push on, building a gap of 1:38 by the end of the second lap. The shortness of the stage meant that the peloton, led in turn by Team Sky and Dimension Data, were reluctant to give the escapees any more space and that was down to just over a minute at the halfway point.
Sensing an opportunity to join the four out front, Nicola Boem (Bardiani CSF) attacked from the peloton on the climb towards the finish line. It proved to be a fruitless move and the peloton quickly had him back in their ranks.
The final lap saw the breakaway attack each other with Greipel and Izagirre both having a go as the gap ticked down to just over 30 seconds. Team Sky continued their work to bring the leaders back, this time with the help of the Orica-BikeExchange team. The peloton closing in, the break decided to sit up and with four kilometres to go, they were eventually reeled in.
Third place in the general classification, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) moved up towards the front with Dennis before the Australian attacked with two kilometres to go. Cummings led the charge behind, keeping Dennis at close quarters. It wasn't quite enough to bring them back and Dennis would go on to win the stage but Cummings cut his loses to keep hold of the yellow jersey going into the final stage.
The Tour of Britain will come to a close this Sunday with a final stage in London.\n
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