{"id":6675,"date":"2017-09-09T22:16:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T21:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/?p=6675"},"modified":"2017-09-15T19:56:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T18:56:56","slug":"ovo-energy-tour-of-britain-2017-stage-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/?p=6675","title":{"rendered":"OVO Energy Tour of Britain | 2017 – Stage 7"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Hemel Hempstead to Cheltenham bunch Sprint<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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OVO Energy Tour of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Hemel Hempstead to Cheltenham<\/pre>\n
Words by SweetSpot, Images by Chris Maher<\/p>\n
Lars Boom retains OVO Energy Green Jersey in Cheltenham<\/p>\n
Lars Boom retained the overall lead of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain heading into the final day to Cardiff, surviving an explosive day of racing through the Cotswolds to Cheltenham as his teammate Dylan Groenewegen took the stage win.<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Jacob Scott, Brill Hill Skoda KOM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Groenewegen outsprinted triple stage winner Caleb Ewan and Brenton Jones but it was only thanks to the hard work of his Lotto NL Jumbo team that the race had come back together for the sprint alongside Cheltenham’s Imperial Gardens having resisted attacks from general classification contenders Tony Martin, Alex Dowsett, Edvald Boasson Hagen among others, the latter of whom was caught within the final 1,500-metres.<\/p>\n
“The stage was very hard but I survived it. It was a little bit freestyle sprint so I used Caleb Ewan’s wheel and Gaviria’s\u201d, said Groenwegen afterwards, who won Stage Four in 2016 at the Royal Welsh Showground.<\/p>\n
“He [Ewan] is in great form so it’s really good that I could beat him. After the Tour de France I was a little bit tired, but I think the form is good so it’s good for morale.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After a start under clear blue skies in Hemel Hempstead, the race exploded into life \u2013 as did the rain clouds \u2013 with an aggressive start to the stage and Cannondale Drapac in particular making several attempts to put riders up the road.<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Hemel Hempstead to Cheltenham – Brill Hill Skoda KOM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In the end two groups of three riders went away, but with neither a threat to the overall they were allowed to merge and build a four-minute plus lead, with Jacob Scott extending his SKODA King of the Mountains lead as a result.<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Tiago Machado through Bourton-On-Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
With the race entering the Cotwolds and the gap just over the three minute mark, Tiago Machado sparked the attacking, going clear of the peloton but not quite making it to the leading six.<\/p>\n
Behind him a strong five-rider group made an attempt to work their way across, including his Katusha Alpecin teammate Reto Hollenstein, Michal Kwiatkowski, Sylvian Diller, Ryan Mullen and Dowsett. The five got 30-seconds clear of the peloton, but with Lotto NL Jumbo alert to the threat to Boom’s lead began to work hard bringing the whole race back together.<\/p>\n
This immediately spurred another Katusha Alpecin into action, with World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin driving clear in heavy rain on an impressive, and sustained, solo effort, but one that was ultimately doomed under the Lotto pressure.<\/p>\n
With everyone back together the intermediate Eisberg Sprint at Winchcombe became the new general classification battleground, with BMC’s Stefan K\u00fcng grabbing the bonus seconds to elevate him into second overall \u2013 between Boom and teammate Victor Campenaerts \u2013 while Mark McNally took two points to leap him over Graham Briggs and into the Eisberg Sprints jersey.<\/p>\n
On the day’s final SKODA King of the Mountains climb at Cleeve Hill, topping out with less than 10-kilometres remaining five riders went clear including former winners Boasson Hagen and Dylan Van Baarle.<\/p>\n
Van Baarle then crashed out on the descent, obstructing Laurens De Plus and leaving Dion Smith, Gorka Izagirre and Boasson Hagen out front. With the teams of the sprinters sensing the chance of success again \u2013 that earlier in the day had seemed highly unlikely \u2013 they came to the front on the final five kilometres in Cheltenham, reeling the trio in just before the final kilometre arch.<\/p>\n
“It was quite a hectic start but we controlled it quite well,\u201d said Boom after the stage, praising the work throughout the day of this team. “It was a good situation for us, Gijs van Hoecke and Primoz Roglic controlled the bunch quite well”.<\/p>\n
“We never had any problems except a small problem with 30, 40 kilometres to go when the group with Dowsett and Kwiato went. I did not react straightaway and Campenaerts had to pull on the front”.<\/p>\n
“There was a small breakaway with Boasson Hagen, which was a bit critical, but I went full downhill to try and keep the gap as small as possible and then the sprinters teams took over”.<\/p>\n
“The main goal was to not allow Boasson Hagen and Kwiato to take seconds as tomorrow if you take all of the seconds \u2013 there are 19-seconds in total available if you’re lucky. But now we are a little bit more comfortable so it’ll be a good day tomorrow.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Heading towards Wales and the final stage Boom leads overall by eight-seconds from K\u00fcng, with teammate Campenaerts and Vasil Kiryienka each a further second behind. Geraint Thomas is the best placed Brit and leader of the Adnams classification heading to his home city of Cardiff in ninth, 20-seconds back.<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Peloton through Bourton-On-Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The final stage of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain sees the peloton racing from Worcester to Cardiff, heading through Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Newport before the finish on King Edward VII Avenue in Cardiff. The 180-kilometre stage begins at 11:00, with live coverage on ITV4 from 10:45 and concludes with three-laps of a city centre circuit in Cardiff taking in the city’s most iconic sights.<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Peloton through Bourton-On-Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Stage Winner 91 GROENEWEGEN Dylan Team Lotto.Nl – Jumbo NED
\nCombativity HIGH5 114 DOWNING Russell Jlt Condor<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Lars Boom in Green<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
General OVO Energy 92 BOOM Lars Team Lotto.Nl – Jumbo NED
\nPoints Wiggle 72 KRISTOFF Alexander Katusha – Alpecin NOR
\nKing of the Mountain SKODA 44 SCOTT Jacob An Post – Chain Reaction GBR
\nSprints Eisberg 133 MCNALLY Mark Wanty – Groupe Gobert GBR
\nBest British Adnams 141 THOMAS Geraint Team Sky GBR
\nTeams Team Lotto.Nl – Jumbo<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 OVO Skoda KOM jersey holder Jacob Scott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Jerseys<\/pre>\n
General – Green OVO Energy 92 BOOM Lars Team Lotto.Nl – Jumbo NED
\nPoints \u2013 Orange and Gray Wiggle 72 KRISTOFF Alexander Katusha – Alpecin NOR
\nMountain – Black Skoda 44 SCOTT Jacob An Post – Chain Reaction GBR
\nSprints – Red Eisberg 133 MCNALLY Mark Wanty – Groupe Gobert<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 winner Dylan Groenewegen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Stage 7 Top Thirty<\/pre>\n
1 91 GROENEWEGEN Dylan 00″ TLJ NED B:10″
\n2 51 *EWAN Caleb ‘ ‘ ORS AUS B:06″
\n3 111 JONES Brenton ‘ ‘ JLT AUS B:04″
\n4 72 KRISTOFF Alexander ‘ ‘ KAT NOR
\n5 134 PASQUALON Andrea ‘ ‘ WGG ITA
\n6 192 BENNATI Daniele ‘ ‘ MOV ITA
\n7 81 *GAVIRIA Fernando ‘ ‘ QST COL
\n8 154 MAES Nikolas ‘ ‘ LTS BEL
\n9 26 GERTS Floris ‘ ‘ BMC NED
\n10 161 *ALBANESE Vincenzo ‘ ‘ BAR ITA
\n11 175 PATERSKI Maciej ‘ ‘ CCC POL
\n12 176 TRATNIK Jan ‘ ‘ CCC SLO
\n13 13 GRADEK Kamil ‘ ‘ ONE POL
\n14 33 *HAYTER Ethan ‘ ‘ GBR GBR
\n15 36 *WOOD Oliver ‘ ‘ GBR GBR
\n16 92 BOOM Lars ‘ ‘ TLJ NED B:01″
\n17 21 K\u00dcNG Stefan ‘ ‘ BMC SUI B:03″
\n18 173 KOCH Jonas ‘ ‘ CCC GER
\n19 55 MEZGEC Luka ‘ ‘ ORS SLO
\n20 71 MARTIN Tony ‘ ‘ KAT GER
\n21 95 VAN EMDEN Jos ‘ ‘ TLJ NED
\n22 143 KIRYIENKA Vasil ‘ ‘ SKY BLR
\n23 126 BEVIN Patrick ‘ ‘ CDT NZL
\n24 191 DOWSETT Alex ‘ ‘ MOV GBR
\n25 85 RICHEZE Ariel Maximiliano ‘ ‘ QST ARG
\n26 5 THWAITES Scott ‘ ‘ DDD GBR
\n27 163 BARBIN Enrico ‘ ‘ BAR ITA
\n28 106 *SWIFT Connor ‘ ‘ MGT GBR
\n29 2 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald ‘ ‘ DDD NOR
\n30 83 GILBERT Philippe ‘ ‘<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 OVO Energy Green Jersey holder Lars Boom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
General Classification<\/p>\n
1 92 BOOM Lars 00″ TLJ NED 26h37’28”
\n2 21 K\u00dcNG Stefan 08″ BMC SUI 26h37’36”
\n3 93 CAMPENAERTS Victor 09″ TLJ BEL 26h37’37”
\n4 143 KIRYIENKA Vasil 10″ SKY BLR 26h37’38”
\n5 95 VAN EMDEN Jos 14″ TLJ NED 26h37’42”
\n6 71 MARTIN Tony 15″ KAT GER 26h37’43”
\n7 144 KWIATKOWSKI Michal 20″ SKY POL 26h37’48”
\n8 2 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald ‘ ‘ DDD NOR ‘ ‘
\n9 141 THOMAS Geraint ‘ ‘ SKY GBR ‘ ‘
\n10 123 *MULLEN Ryan 28″<\/p>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Peloton over Brill Hill, Skoda KOM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Russell Downing through Bourton-On-Water Eisberg Sprints with Lukasz Owsain…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Steele Von Hoff & Lukasz Owsain through Bourton-On-Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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OVO Energy Tour Of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Peloton through Bourton-On-Water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OVO Energy Tour of Britain 2017 | Stage 7 Hemel Hempstead to Cheltenham Words by SweetSpot, Images by Chris Maher Lars Boom retains OVO Energy Green Jersey in Cheltenham Lars Boom retained the overall lead of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain heading into the final day to Cardiff, surviving an explosive day of racing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[1112,1117,1029,1034,726,811,26,1121,1122,1119,721,1115,130,741,474],"class_list":["post-6675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-cycling-road","tag-ovotob","tag-alexander-kristoff","tag-brenton-jones","tag-caleb-ewan","tag-dylan-groenewegen","tag-edvald-boasson-hagen","tag-geraint-thomas","tag-jacob-scott","tag-lars-boom","tag-lukasz-owsain","tag-mark-mcnally","tag-ovo-energy-tour-of-britain","tag-russell-downing","tag-steele-von-hoff","tag-sweetspot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6675"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6686,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6675\/revisions\/6686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrismaher.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}