photo credits @ Tour of Britain
Steve Cummings defended his hold on the Yellow Jersey, after taking fourth place in this morning’s Individual Time Trial in Bristol.
Meanwhile, three-time World Champion Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) won today’s 15 kilometer race against the clock with a winning time of 18:06, beating BMC Racing’s Rohan Dennis by three-seconds.
Speaking afterwards, the Etixx Quick-Step rider said;
“In this peloton you have the world’s best time trialists, so it really makes it special for me. It’s also my first victory in the Tour of Britain, so it’s definitely a victory to remember.
“The course was really nice but the rain and wet roads made it a little bit dangerous because you have to fight for every second.
“I did a good recon and knew the corners quite well so knew how fast I could go, so for me it was fine. I didn’t really expect to be going so fast as the week has been quite hard for us, we had the jersey until yesterday and had to work a lot, so I didn’t feel fresh.
“But sometimes when you don’t expect a good performance you do even better, so I’m really happy. It’s my first international victory of the year so gives me a lot of morale.”
Giant Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin rounded out the podium with the third fastest time, 5-seconds behind Dennis.
Cummings now holds a 38-second lead over Dumoulin and Dennis, followed by Tony Gallopin (otto-Soudal) in fourth at just over a minute.
Dumoulin also moved into the lead of the Chain Reaction Cycles Points Jersey thanks to his third spot, with a seven point lead over Cummings.
Riders will contest a six lap circuit race to complete the Bristol Stage later today.
Stage 7a Results GER 1 MARTIN, Tony (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) 18:06 AUS 2 DENNIS, Rohan (BMC RACING) + 3 NED 3 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 5 GBR 4 CUMMINGS, Stephen (DIMENSION DATA) + 16 FRA 5 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 25 ESP 6 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) GBR 7 DOWSETT, Alex (MOVISTAR) + 35 IRL 8 ROCHE, Nicolas (SKY) + 36 IRL 9 MULLEN, Ryan (CANNONDALE) + 39 NED 10 VAN BAARLE, Dylan (CANNONDALE) + 40 USA 11 PHINNEY, Taylor (BMC RACING) 12 GEOGHEGAN HART Tao (GBR) + 44 NED 13 HOEKSTRA, Jochem (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 47 ESP 14 ARCAS PENA, Jorge (MOVISTAR) + 48 NED 15 TUSVELD, Martijn (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 49 USA 16 EISENHART, Taylor (BMC RACING) + 50 GBR 17 BRADBURY, Edmund (NFTO) + 51 GBR 18 SWIFT, Ben (SKY) + 54 ESP 19 SAEZ BENITO, Hector (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) + 55 BEL 20 VERMOTE, Julien (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 59 GBR 21 ROWSELL, Erick (MADISON GENESIS) + 1:00 GBR 22 WILLIAMS, Peter (ONE PRO CYCLING) + 1:01 23 POELS Wout (SKY) NZL 24 SMITH, Dion (ONE PRO CYCLING) + 1:02 GBR 25 DIBBEN, Jonathan (TEAM WIGGINS) GBR 26 CHRISTIAN, Mark (TEAM WIGGINS) + 1:03 BEL 27 MEURISSE, Xandro (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) + 1:06 POL 28 DOMAGALSKI, Karol (ONE PRO CYCLING) ESP 29 MORENO BAZAN, Javier (MOVISTAR) + 1:07 POR 30 ANDRÉ MACIEL GONÇALVES, Domingos (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) GER 31 ZEPUNTKE, Ruben (CANNONDALE) + 1:18 GBR 32 LAMPIER, Steven (JLT CONDOR) NZL 33 BAUER, Jack (CANNONDALE) + 1:21 ITA 34 MARCATO, Marco (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) + 1:23 ESP 35 RUBIO, Diego (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) + 1:26 AUS 36 EDMONDSON, Alexander (ORICA-BIKEEXCHANGE) ITA 37 MOSCA, Jacopo (TREK – SEGAFREDO) + 1:28 BEL 38 VEREECKEN, Nicolas (AN POST – CHAIN REACTION) + 1:30 ITA 39 ZARDINI, Edoardo (BARDIANI CSF) + 1:33 POL 40 WISNIOWSKI, Lukasz (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 1:36
General Classification after Stage 7a GBR 1 CUMMINGS, Stephen (DIMENSION DATA) 27:22:33 NED 2 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 38 AUS 3 DENNIS, Rohan (BMC RACING) FRA 4 GALLOPIN, Tony (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 1:02 NED 5 VAN BAARLE, Dylan (CANNONDALE) + 1:21 IRL 6 ROCHE, Nicolas (SKY) + 1:26 BEL 7 MEURISSE, Xandro (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) + 1:48 GBR 8 SWIFT, Ben (SKY) + 1:52 BEL 9 VERMOTE, Julien (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 2:08 ITA 10 MOSCA, Jacopo (TREK – SEGAFREDO) + 2:32 FRA 11 MARTIN, Guillaume (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) + 2:48 GBR 12 CHRISTIAN, Mark (TEAM WIGGINS) + 3:58 IRL 13 MARTIN, Daniel (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 4:23 GBR 14 ROWSELL, Erick (MADISON GENESIS) + 5:18 15 GEOGHEGAN HART Tao (GBR) + 5:19
You must be logged in to post a comment.
