STATEMENT
THURSDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2022
Further to the earlier statement in relation to the cancellation of stage six as a mark of respect following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen, the organisers of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain can additionally confirm that stages seven (Dorset) and eight (Isle of Wight) will not take place.
This decision has been taken in consultation with stakeholders and partners in light of operational circumstances, including the understandable reassignment of police resource at this time.
Therefore, the final standings will be taken following the conclusion of stage five on Thursday 8 September. The winner of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain 2022 will be Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar Team).
Additionally, the respective classification leaders – Tom Pidcock (Dodl by AJ Bell points), Mathijs Paasschens (ŠKODA King of the Mountains) and Matthew Teggart (Sportsbreaks.com Sprints) – will also be declared the winners of those competitions.
The Tour of Britain organisation, alongside the teams, riders and officials involved in the event, send their deepest condolences to the Royal Family at this sad time.
PRESS RELEASE
WEDNESDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2022
GONZALO SERRANO TAKES AJ BELL TOUR OF BRITAIN LEAD IN YORKSHIRE
Movistar Team’s Gonzalo Serrano moved in to the AJ Bell Tour of Britain race lead after winning a dramatic fourth stage between Redcar and Duncombe Park, Helmsley, on Wednesday.
Serrano pipped home favourite Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers), Dylan Teuns (Israel – Premier Tech) and a second INEOS rider – Spaniard Omar Fraile – to the victory after the quartet broke clear over the climb of Newgate Bank with 8.4 kilometres remaining.
In addition to becoming the first Spaniard to win a stage of the UK’s leading cycle race in 10 years, Serrano moved into the AJ Bell leader’s jersey, with both Pidcock and Fraile trailing by seven seconds.
“Today was a crazy day,” said Serrano after the stage. “Very, very aggressive but my team was with me for company, it was a difficult day, but they worked strongly to close down the breakaway in the last kilometers. Pidcock and Fraile are very strong, and in Britain, this race is very important for INEOS but I attacked in the last climb, and in the sprint I thought I can win.”
Serrano’s win is his seventh top ten finish from the past eleven AJ Bell Tour of Britain stages with the 28-year-old from Madrid having never finished worse than 21st in his two participations in the race.
The Movistar team had worked hard with all their five remaining riders on the front of the diminished peloton after the action had burst into life on the ŠKODA King of the Mountains climb of Carlton Bank.
Fraile set the initial pace, setting up Pidcock’s attack with Oscar Onley (Team DSM) and Teuns following, with Italian champion Filippo Zana (Bardiani CSF Faizanè) and Michael Woods (Israel – Premier Tech) following. A second surge towards the top of the fan-lined climb took Pidcock, Onley, and Teuns clear with the trio building a lead of 45 seconds.
Movistar, TRINITY Racing, and Great Britain’s Jake Stewart then drove the bunch hard along Bilsdale towards the final uncategorized climb of Newgate Bank, making the junction on the lower slopes with Serrano then able to jump clear to claim the bonus seconds at the Sportsbreaks.com sprint at the summit.
Pidcock fought hard to take his wheel with Teuns and then Fraile following to make up the quartet that would contest the finish in the setting of Duncombe Park. Turning into the grounds of the park it was Fraile who picked up the pack on the drag up to the line with Serrano again able to hold off the charging Pidcock.
Speaking after moving into second position overall, Pidcock said; “We tried several times and with being the home team there is a bit of pressure and expectation for us to make the race. Which makes it all that much that harder to win, but I think we did pretty well. It was a bit disappointing but yeah what can I say.”
Overnight leader Ben Perry (Wiv SunGod) drops to fourth overall on the same time as Pidcock and Fraile, with Israel – Premier Tech duo Teuns and Corbin Strong sitting next at ten and fourteen seconds in arrears.
As well as losing the red AJ Bell leader’s jersey, Wiv SunGod’s Jacob Scott also shed the ŠKODA King of the Mountains jersey to Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB rider Mathijs Paasschens. The team keep hold of the Sportsbreaks.com Sprints jersey while INEOS Grenadiers rider Magnus Sheffield won the stage four Adyen Combativity Award after an early breakaway with Saint Piran’s Harry Birchill as the race passed along the Yorkshire coast.
For full results and standings brought to you by Brother UK, please click here.
PRESS RELEASE
TUESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2022
KAMIEL BONNEU WINS AS BREAKAWAY UPSTAGES PELOTON IN SUNDERLAND
Belgian rider Kamiel Bonneu claimed the biggest victory of his professional career as a four-rider breakaway group ripped up the script on stage three of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain in Sunderland on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise rider attacked in the final kilometre to beat Ben Perry (Wiv SunGod), Alexandar Richardson (Saint Piran) and Mathijs Paasschens (Bingoal Pauwels Sauce WB) to the line.
There was added drama as Israel – Premier Tech’s Corbin Strong was initially awarded the red AJ Bell leader’s jersey for a third day before the UCI commissaires panel reviewed their decision almost two hours after the conclusion of the stage. As a result, Perry takes a seven second lead over Strong, with Paasschens a further four seconds back, and Jake Stewart the highest placed Brit fifth at 15 seconds.
The change gives British domestic team Wiv SunGod the lead in AJ Bell Tour of Britain along with the Sportsbreaks.com Sprints jersey with Matt Teggart and the ŠKODA King of the Mountains jersey with Jacob Scott.
Stage three was tipped to culminate in the first conventional bunch sprint of this year’s race, but the quartet managed to hold off the peloton following a dramatic final 50 kilometres that saw torrential rain sweep the race as it approached Sunderland.
But, having broken clear approaching the town of Tow Law following a frantic start to the race, the four riders had a three-and-a-half-minute lead going into the final 30 kilometres, which fell dramatically as the cooperation between the quartet subsided.
“I do like bad weather,” said Bonneu speaking afterwards. “I don’t know if that is an advantage but today it wasn’t a disadvantage to like bad weather. I like riding in the rain, so for me it was no problem.
“We are a small team, we don’t win that much. So it’s always nice to get a win and especially in stage race like this. I think it’s a really nice stage race – it’s really awesome to win.”
Bonneu’s win came despite the break losing nearly two minutes of their advantage in the final four kilometres, with a lack of cohesion looking to have cost them the chance of victory with BORA – hansgrohe driving the peloton on through the rain.
“We discussed at the beginning of the stage that Mathijs and the guy from SunGod, will go back after the third sprint because they were really close in the GC, but then we had such a big gap that they said ‘we’re not going to go back.’ I completely understood them, but Richardson said ‘Okay, if you’re not going to keep your promise then I’m not going to work with you!’ It’s his decision and I don’t mind because I won.”
Bonneu also praised the British spectators, who again turned out in force despite what had started as a sunny morning outside St Mary’s College in Durham turning into another day of rain-lashed action.
“It’s crazy,” continued Bonneu. “I think if this was in Belgium nobody would go on the streets, but here everybody is on the streets. It’s crazy how many people show up! It’s really nice.”
For full results and standings brought to you by Brother UK, please click here.
PRESS RELEASE
MONDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2022
CEELS BOL CLAIMS DRAMATIC AJ BELL TOUR OF BRITAIN STAGE IN DUNS
Cees Bol claimed his first victory since March 2021 in dramatic style as he dramatically pipped Briton Jake Stewart to win stage two of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain in Duns on Monday.
The Team DSM rider timed both his sprint and bike throw to the line to perfection to claim his first victory in the race, denying Stewart the same achievement in the process by just one thousandth of a second.
Corbin Strong (Israel – Premier Tech) placed third to extend his lead at the top of the standings and claim the AJ Bell leader’s jersey for another day. The Kiwi rider now leads by eight seconds from Stewart, with Omar Fraile (INEOS Grenadiers) on the same time, and also holds the Dodl by AJ Bell Points jersey with an extended eight-point advantage.
Speaking after pulling on the red AJ Bell leader’s jersey for the second day, Strong said; “I’m confident as I am sprinting well at the moment. I was there or there abouts but there was some fast guys still there at the finish though, so third was the best I could do today. I’m really happy again, and hopefully it continues.
“It’s a really nice and pretty humbling experience actually. Having some guys that I’ve grown up watching like Michal Kwiatkowski and Riche Porte congratulate me, it’s a really cool feeling as a young neo-pro being recognised by guys like that. It was a nice day for me and hopefully it continues.”
Looking ahead Strong said; “It’s going to be really interesting. The Tour of Britain is one of those races that with weather and the unknown nature of the roads, any day it can split to pieces so it’s really hard to tell. I’m in a really privileged situation to have guys like Reto [Hollenstein], [Alex] Dowsett and Mason [Hollyman] to defend the lead and then obvious the experience of Michael [Woods] and Dylan [Teuns] as some cards to play as well.”
The race had sparked into action as the peloton took on a trio of late ŠKODA King of the Mountains climbs in the Lammermuir Hills above Duns, with the final riders from the day’s breakaway – Sportsbreaks.com Sprints leader Matt Teggart (Wiv SunGod) and overnight ŠKODA King of the Mountains leader Stephan Bassett (Human Powered Health) – caught just after the summit of Wanside Rigg.
INEOS Grenadiers then controlled the race on the narrow roads across the open moorland onto the second climb, with Jacob Scott (Wiv SunGod) jumping away near the top of the second climb of Mainslaughter Law to secure enough points to move into the ŠKODA King of the Mountains jersey that he has won in the past two editions of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain.
Scott’s advantage as short lived as Davide Gabburo (Bardiani CSF Faizanè) went clear on the descent, building a 30-second lead. The Italian was caught approaching the top of the final climb of Hardens Hill, with German champion Nils Politt (BORA – hansgrohe) driving over the top and briefly going clear before Dylan Teuns (Israel – Premier Tech) countered.
The Belgian looked to have done enough on the fast descent into Duns but was caught first by Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers), and then as the pair hesitated, a Team DSM led peloton.
DSM put Bol into a good position coming into Duns but as the road gradually rose past the Jim Clark Museum it looked like an inspired late charge from the Great Britain team was going to deliver Stewart to victory, only for the Coventry rider to be denied by the narrowest of margins.
“It was obviously a nice day for me”, said Bol. “But it was a pretty hard day. It was not an easy stage and when the final kicked off the first two climbs were on the tailwind sectors and that was actually really hard, I was on the limit of dropping and giving up. I kept fighting and then on the headwind it was a bit easier to stay in the bunch, and then over the top of the last climb my team-mates found me and put me in the best position. From there it was just the last 200 metres all out, fighting through the cramps and throwing the bike.”
For Stewart the result marks a best performance in his home Tour, coming a day after finishing just outside the top ten at Glenshsee.
“We can be happy with the work we did, obviously it is disappointing to come away with second but the lads did a really good job and we will take it from here” he remarked after the stage. “We had a good day yesterday and a really good day today, and there are still plenty more opportunities to come
“We had a plan going into the day with the boys and we executed it really well. We knew where we had to be over those last few climbs. We had Sam [Watson] there to lead us out, we knew it was an uphill sprint with a slight headwind and really, I wanted to come from behind but we found ourselves on the front. I was pretty confident in my long sprint, I’ve always been pretty good over a long distance, but in the end the finish was about five metres too far!”
Wiv SunGod hold both the Sportsbreaks.com Sprints and ŠKODA King of the Mountains jerseys with Matt Teggart and Jacob Scott respectively, while fellow British team Saint Piran made a first visit to the AJ Bell Tour of Britain podium as Adam Lewis collected the Adyen Combativity Award.
PRESS RELEASE
SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2022
CORBIN STRONG WINS AJ BELL TOUR OF BRITAIN OPENING STAGE
Israel – Premier Tech’s Corbin Strong claimed the biggest road victory of his career to date on Sunday as he claimed the opening stage of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain atop Glenshee Ski Centre in Aberdeenshire.
The Kiwi timed his sprint to perfection to pip Omar Fraile (INEOS Grenadiers) to the win at the end of a stage raced out during inclement weather throughout.
This victory is Corbin’s second notable victory in Great Britain in the past month: he also won the scratch won at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Speaking afterwards Strong, who becomes the first rider to don the red AJ Bell leader’s jersey, said; “I’ve been wanting to win at this level on the road for a long time and I always believed I could but it hasn’t been smooth sailing, so to get that win is a massive relief. Really just to prove to myself and prove to my team that I can race at this level.
“I always really enjoy racing in the rain actually. I come from Invercargill in New Zealand, right down the bottom and it’s very similar to Scotland actually – it felt like home racing in conditions like this, and really suited me well.
“The break looked like they could have gone all the way but then the team, and Alex Dowsett in particular, did an awesome job in the closing few kilometres.
“This is the first time I’ve come into a race at this level with confidence that I can perform and take a win so there was a couple of moments in the last then or so kilometres that I got a wee bit too excited and yeah guys like Mike [Woods] and Dylan [Teuns] just calmed me down a little bit which was nice. Then it just opened up at the finish and I was following Dylan through and I got on INEOS and was able to open up a good sprint.”
A five-rider break had spent much of the day away as wet and stormy conditions swept the route right from the start in Aberdeen city centre out into the Aberdeenshire countryside. Uno-X Pro Cycling rider Martin Urianstad was joined by duos from both Wiv SunGod (Jacob Scott and Matt Teggart) and Human Powered Health (Matt Gibson and Stephen Bassett) for a quintet that built a lead that went out as far as five minutes.
Bassett and Teggart took the ŠKODA King of the Mountains jersey and Sportsbreaks.com Sprints jerseys respectively, while Gibson’s reward was a trip to the podium for the Adyen Combativity Award.
The group made it until the higher slopes of the climb up to the Glenshee Ski Centre as Israel – Premier Tech and then INEOS Grenadiers drove the peloton.
TRINITY Racing’s Thomas Gloag was the first to jump, catching the break and briefly threatening to go away before the bunch reeled everyone in with 1.6 kilometres to go. Richie Porte (INEOS Grenadiers) did the lions share of the work on the front, but as the slow uphill sprint unfolded it was the team of Israel – Premier Tech that came out on top.
Strong now holds a four-second lead over Fraile in the general classification, with third-placed stage finisher Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Pro Cycling) a further two seconds in arrears. Fifth-placed Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) is the highest placed British rider.
For full results and standings brought to you by Brother UK, please click here.
PRESS RELEASE
SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2022
AJ BELL TOUR OF BRITAIN 2022 RETURNS ON SUNDAY
The AJ Bell Tour of Britain, the UK’s most prestigious cycle race, returns on Sunday for what promises to be the most spectacular edition to date.
Eighteen of the world’s leading teams and 108 riders will compete in the eight-day race, which begins in the heart of historic Aberdeen on Sunday (4 September) and will be watched by a roadside audience of over one million spectators, plus many more on ITV4 in the UK.
Home favourites INEOS Grenadiers will be led by Yorkshireman Tom Pidcock, Tokyo 2020 gold medallist and recent Tour de France stage winner. The second most-successful team in race history have also selected former world road race champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland) and Tour de France podium finisher Richie Porte (Australia) in their line-up. Porte will end his glittering 13-year professional career at the race.
Competing in the race for the first time since 2014, BORA – Hansgrohe will look for success with Nils Politt, Marco Haller and Lukas Pöstlberger. Politt, who was crowned the German road champion in June, won a Tour de France stage in 2021 (ahead of Spaniard Imanol Erviti, who coincidentally will line-up for the Movistar Team in the race). The 28-year-old will return to the race for the first time since the 2019 edition, in which he finished fifth overall.
Austrian rider Haller sprinted to a memorable victory in the BEMER Cyclassics one-day race around Hamburg in mid-August, while compatriot Pöstlberger famously won a stage of the Giro d’Italia in 2017.
Politt will be one of seven reigning national road race champions will also display their country’s colours prominently in the race: Felix Großschartner (Austria, BORA – hansgrohe); Filippo Zana (Italy, Bardiani CSF Faizanè); Abner González (Puerto Rico, Movistar Team); Rasmus Tiller (Norway, Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), Rory Townsend (Ireland, Wiv SunGod) and Red Walters (Grenada, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling).
Israel – Premier Tech have named arguably their strongest-ever line-up for the race, led by two-time Tour de France stage winner Dylan Teuns. The Belgian rider, who has declared his intentions to target the overall victory, will be supported by last year’s fifth placed overall Michael Woods and Briton Alex Dowsett.
Dowsett announced last week that he will retire from top-level racing at the end of this season, ending a 12-year professional career that includes one stage victory in his home tour as well as leading the race in 2014.
“Since I decided that I will retire, I have become more excited about the future. It will be fantastic to do this race one last time,” said Dowsett.
Movistar Team’s ninth-consecutive appearance in the race will see American rider Matteo Jorgenson, who finished 21st in this year’s Tour de France, spearhead their attack. Two-time Vuelta a Espana stage winner Imanol Erviti and Madrid-born Gonzalo Serrano, who recorded three top-10 stages finishes en route to placing 11th overall last year, also return to the event.
Former Giro d’Italia stage winners Enrico Battaglin and Sacha Modolo will also both return as part of the Italian Bardiani CSF Faizanè team.
The fifth UCI WorldTeam in the event, Team DSM, have selected Dutch sprinter Cees Bol and Australian climber Chris Hamilton as part of their squad. Bol recorded two top-10 finishes at the race in 2019, a year after Hamilton placed ninth overall.
Team DSM also include Oscar Onley, one of three Scots in the race who will be racing on home roads during the opening two stages of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain. Onley hails from Kelso in the Scottish Borders and will race through the centre of his hometown during stage two on Monday 5 September.
The opening stage in the northeast of Scotland is as close to home as the race gets for Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Finn Crockett, who is from Inverness.
“To have a stage so close to home is brilliant. It is good to have the limelight on the north of Scotland,” said Crockett. “It’s going to be a tough stage up to Glenshee on Sunday and I’m sure the Scottish crowds will turn out.
“It’s the biggest race that Ribble Weldtite will do so of course I have my own goals and that’s to get up there in the stages and you’ll hopefully see us in the breakaways flying the Ribble colours.”
Completing the line is Calum Johnston who will race for the Caja Rural – Seguros RGA team. Johnston said: “This is my first Tour of Britain and it’s going to be super special as the first two stages are in Scotland. It is a very important race for me, I am going to compete close to my family, friends and all the people who support me, which motivates me extra to give my best here.
“The first stage in Aberdeen is the most difficult, so much so that I think it will be decisive for the general classification. The final climb to Glenshee is very tough and I think it will cause a big gap between the favourites.”
A strong Great Britain national team will feature Connor Swift, the British road race champion in 2019, recent Tour de l’Ain stage winner Jake Stewart and emerging star Sam Watson.
Britain’s four domestic teams, all of whom will look for ways to showcase themselves, will also be on the start line in Aberdeen. Wiv SunGod are the most successful of the quartet, having claimed the Sportsbreaks.com sprints jersey in the past three editions. Last year’s winner, Jacob Scott, doubled up spectacularly in 2021 by also winning the ŠKODA King of the Mountains prize. He and the aforementioned Townsend headline the team’s line-up.
Alex Richardson, who placed third at the British Cycling National Road Championships in June and won the recent Ryedale GP in North Yorkshire, will lead Saint Piran’s charge in the race. TRINITY Racing, who are managed by two-time stage winner Ian Stannard, have named former American criterium champion Luke Lamperti, who came fourth at Warrington in the AJ Bell Tour of Britain last September.
British track stars Charlie and Harry Tanfield will race through their home village of Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, on stage four of the race. The siblings have been selected to race for Ribble Weldtite, whose line-up also features Nottinghamshire’s Ross Lamb, another rider who will enjoy a home stage during the Tour.
The full rider list for the AJ Bell Tour of Britain can be downloaded here.
The 2022 race starts in Aberdeen on Sunday 4 September and culminates with what promises to be a spectacular finale on the Isle of Wight eight stages later on Sunday 11 September. Along the way riders will tackle stages in the Scottish Borders, North East England, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset.
ITV4 will continue to broadcast live flag-to-flag coverage of every stage and nightly highlights show, allowing fans in the UK to watch wherever they are. The race will also be shown in over 150 countries worldwide, thanks to the event’s partnerships with Eurosport and the Global Cycling Network.
