Tour of Britain: Bauer takes stage, Vermote keeps leading GC
Sep 08 2016 11:05 pm CET
Jack Bauer of Cannondale-Drapac took the victory in the fifth stage of the 2016 Tour of Britain. The rider from New Zealand was faster than Amaël Moinard and Erick Rowsell.
The stage covered 194.5 kilometers and took the riders from Aberdare in South Wales, into Gloucestershire and finishing in the beautiful city of Bath, which is a Unesco World Heritage site.
The route was mountainous with three second category climbs and some other hills along the way that put the legs of the riders to the test.
The day started with several breakaway attempts. Two of those were neutralized by the peloton and one managed to succeed.
A group conformed by Jonathan McEvoy (NFTO), Erick Rowsell (Madison Genesis), Jack Bauer (Cannondale-Drapac), Amaël Moinard (BMC) and Javier Moreno (Movistar) quickly got an advantage over the peloton and reached a gap of more than five minutes.
With 45 kilometers to go the main group started to accelerate in order to catch the escapees. Lotto NL-Jumbo, Dimension Data, Lotto Soudal and Etixx-Quick Step took hard turns in front to increase the speed with the hopes of forcing a final bunch sprint.
As the peloton came closer, the head of the race started pushing away in what looked like a team time trial with all of the escapees having a go in front. With five kilometers to go Moinard attacked from the breakaway but was chased down by his fellow escapees, leaving only McEvoy behind.
The four remaining escapees only just managed to stay ahead of the peloton, with the top sprinters ready to take the stage win, but Bauer had an advantage they couldn't beat. He was closely followed by Moinard and Rowsell.
Caleb Ewan and Dylan Groenewegen took the fourth and fifth positions of the stage, respectively.
Julien Vermote arrived with the main group and keeps the yellow leader's jersey for another day.
