Second place on the climbing stage into Caerphilly secured Wout van Aert his second overall title in the Tour of Britain. Compared with his 2021 victory, however, this was far from straightforward although his fine form had been clear from day one.
Through the hills of south Wales, Ineos’s Spanish starlet Carlos Rodríguez, the eventual stage winner, formed an impromptu alliance with local rider Steve Williams to push Van Aert to the edge, in the first of the eight stages where the Belgian’s Jumbo-Visma team were unable to exert any real grip on proceedings.
After Williams – who was guesting for Great Britain here – and Rodríguez had sprung clear on the climb of Bryn Du, high above Aberdare in the heart of the Rhondda, Van Aert’s teammates had been scattered to the four winds on the high moorland and the two strongest climbers in the race were rapidly forging a healthy advantage ahead of a small chase group, Van Aert faced the prospect of losing the race lead he had taken in winning Thursday’s stage into Felixstowe. “I had a really hard time, I didn’t think it was possible to take the general classification.”
The 28-year-old’s only option was to remain calm and hope that enough of his teammates could battle their way up to him, and that they and other squads would take the strain before the race arrived at the final brace of climbs over Caerphilly Mountain in the last eight miles. “I tried to stay calm, as I knew there were two climbers in front, and they would spend a lot of energy getting to the finish circuit.”
In the hiatus while he waited for Steven Kruijswijk and Nathan Van Hooydonck to catch up, Williams and Rodríguez raced into a lead that briefly exceeded 90 seconds.
With several other teams assisting Jumbo-Visma, the duo’s lead evaporated like the puddles from the rain showers that had greeted the race when it entered the hills, and on reaching Caerphilly they were only a handful of seconds ahead.
The first climb of the mountain broke Williams, a 27-year-old from Aberystwyth who has quietly forged a good career racing for the Bahrain-Merida and Israel-Premier Tech team, and who this year had won the Arctic Race of Norway. Rodríguez forged ahead on his own, but although he has had an outstanding year with a stage win and fifth overall in the Tour de France, he was less of a threat to Van Aert, having lost time in a crash in the Cotswolds on Saturday’s stage into Gloucester.
The Spaniard needed to finish 40sec ahead of Van Aert and his 20sec advantage with one 7km lap of the finish circuit put the race in the balance. With no teammates left at his side, the Belgian had to control the Spaniard’s lead while simultaneously ensuring that he did not crack, and that he did not lose ground to three threats for the overall title: Rodríguez’s Ineos teammate Magnus Sheffield, the Norwegian Tobias Johannessen and the Australian Damien Howson, all of whom were a slender 3sec behind him overall.
While Rodríguez did give the Ineos team a consolatory stage win after the withdrawal of their marquee rider Tom Pidcock on Saturday, he was only 11sec ahead of Van Aert on the line, giving the Belgian his third road race win of 2023. He has had a frustrating mid-season, and it was about time he got the rub of the green.
This was a fine crescendo to a slow-burning week marked by six mass finishes in the first six stages, with 52 riders level on time 3sec behind Van Aert after Friday’s stage into Harlow, but it was far from plain sailing, with this most important climbing stage in effect split into two by a lengthy pause from racing with between 87km and 77km to go, when the race briefly stopped twice and then took a diversion to avoid a stretch of road which had been closed by an accident involving a motorcyclist. The incident was unrelated to the race, but it meant that the entire convoy had to be guided through back streets with racing neutralised and the bunch travelling at controlled speed.
