[ritchiebaby]

The long-time breakaway riders were eventually caught near the finish, which saw a frantic sprint between the three main protagonists. Van Aert won, followed by Hayter and Allaphillippe, leaving Hayter still in the overall lead by 4 seconds from van Aert and 21 seconds from Allaphillippe.

The Tour moves into Scotland tomorrow with a 195km stage from Hawick to Edinburgh. It'll be a hilly twisty stage with nothing too dramatic to trouble the riders except for a few cantankerous, bloody-minded sheep (some might say the same as Sportsbabble) only coralled by cattle grids. There should be good views of wind turbines and moorland until they get close to Edinburgh and the almost inevitable bunch sprint in Holyrood Park.

[ritchiebaby]

Never saw any of the action today, although the race passed within 6 miles of me. Apparently the remnants of the breakaway held off the main contenders by just under 2 minutes, the top three of the breakaway breaking away from the breakaway to have their own little sprint finish. Yves Lampaert won from Matteo Jorgensen and Matt Gibson and it seemed that Hayter, van Aert and Allaphillippe were keeping their powder dry until tomorrow's 173km final stage from Stonehaven to Aberdeen - only 25km away, so they're obviously taking a wee detour into the Highlands.

It should lead into an all-out exciting, perhaps cagey, race with everything to play for.

[themaclad]

Gibson rode well from the I suspect local to me Ribble team

[ritchiebaby]

Wout van Aert proved his supreme confidence and ability by escaping from the inside to win the final stage ahead of Andre Greipel and Mark Cavendish and, more importantly, to gain the 10-second time bonus to edge into the GC lead. Ethan Hayter although in the mix in the last hundred metres finished 11th, a slightly forlorn figure as soon as he saw van Aert sprint to the line. Still, it was an excellent Tour for the top British rider who also won the Points competition. He also won a Silver Medal in the Tokyo Olympics in the Madison, so it's been a good year and he still has the World Championships to come.

Another Briton, Jacob Scott, won the Sprint and KOM competitions at a canter. Deceuninck Quick-Step won the Team competition by 23 seconds from Ineos Grenadiers.

[themaclad]

Enjoyable tour the finish on the Great Orme was fantastic and the amount of peopl who watched from the sidelines was impressive did like the youngster on the outskirts who impressively looked faster than the break but was even more impressive was one of the brek gave him his drinks bottle as they eventualy passed him.
Ace entertainment and teh World road race to come soon also think the Paris-Roubaix is due as well. Yea

[ritchiebaby]

The young lad, Xander Graham, has become an internet "sensation" and was adopted by Pascal Eenkhoorn and the rest of the Jumbo-Visma team, being invited to be on the podium in Aberdeen. Great publicity for them and a possible recruit in 5 or 6 years' time.