The Tour of Britain has been one of Wout van Aert’s happiest hunting grounds in the past, and the Belgian star will travel to Altrincham on Sunday for this year’s race hoping he can finally end a lengthy run of near misses – culminating in last month’s silver medal at the world championships in Glasgow – that have raised questions about his ability to win the biggest races, as well as the way he structures his race season.
When Van Aert won the British Tour in 2021, he was in his pomp, taking four of the eight stages and the overall prize to close out a season where he had won three stages at the Tour de France – an astonishing hat-trick of sprint, time-trial and mountain stages – plus the Amstel Gold and Gent‑Wevelgem Classics.
On the road this year, Van Aert has won only the E3 semi-classic and the Belgian time-trial title, while he has been frustratingly close to major wins time after time with over a dozen near misses in races as diverse as Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and several Tour de France stages.
The British Tour is not in the same league, but at this point in the season Van Aert will not be fussy about where any wins come from. There is a time when a top racer has to win in order to keep their confidence intact, and Van Aert looks to have reached precisely that point.
Backed by a monstrously strong Jumbo-Visma team, and in the absence of his bete noire, Mathieu van der Poel, this is probably his best if not last chance to salvage something from this year.
The Belgian’s most serious challenger is the 24-year-old Yorkshireman Tom Pidcock, one of Van Aert’s biggest rivals on the winter cyclocross circuit, who had a disappointing Tour de France but bounced back to take the mountain bike title at last month’s world championships. Pidcock was perfectly poised to challenge in last year’s Tour of Britain, lying only three seconds behind the leader, Gonzalo Serrano, when the race was cut short as a result of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The relatively short, steep British climbs suit Pidcock perfectly, and he is backed by a strong Ineos team that includes the former national champion Conor Swift, while two other names will be worth watching: the promising Norwegian Tobias Halland Johannessen, and the Welsh rider Stephen Williams, who guests for Great Britain.
This year’s route is far from offering the same opportunities to Van Aert that were there in the undulating and selective 2021 race. The first six stages have only one ascent of note, the Ramsbottom Rake on Sunday’s stage one, and, spectacular though it may be, it is far enough from the finish in Manchester’s Deansgate to suggest the race will open with a sprint finish.
The next five legs through Cheshire, East Yorkshire and Suffolk are all ideal for the sprinters, and it is only on the weekend that a true selection among the race favourites can be expected, with two short steep climbs in the Cotswolds approaching Saturday’s finish in Gloucester and the grand finale through the Welsh hills into Caerphilly next Sunday.
Not surprisingly, the biggest teams have all brought their fast men. The multiple Tour of Britain stage winner Fernando Gaviria lines up for Movistar alongside last year’s surprise winner, Serrano, while at Bora the former Tour de France green jersey winner Sam Bennett has a point to prove after several seasons in which he has struggled to get in the races he wants to ride and to obtain the results he needs.
Great Britain borrow youngster Ethan Vernon from Soudal‑Quick‑Step, while Van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma team bring their exciting sprint prospect Olav Kooij, and the Norwegian Uno-X squad have Rasmus Tiller at the helm. For the two British teams, Saint Piran will look to Solihull’s Jack Rootkin‑Grey, who rode a strong under-23 world championship a few weeks ago, while Trinity Racing field the young American Luke Lamperti, winner of the Cicle Classic in the east Midlands back in the spring.
Both Van Aert and Pidcock have the speed and nous to rival the sprinters on their day, but their all-round ability makes both men more suited to more selective routes where the fast men do not survive the hills.
Curiously, there are no time bonuses at either the intermediate or finish sprints this year, meaning there is a good chance a large number of the field will start next weekend’s stages on the same time. There will be no need for the race favourites to get involved in the mass finishes, meaning the odds are on a slow burner this week, before a climax over the double ascents of Caerphilly Mountain next Sunday.
