Jumbo-Visma rip up the Tour of Britain script with Van Aert's 'surprise' late attack
Dutch team win fifth stage in a row as Van Aert takes GC lead with plan which 'came up as a jo🍌ke/idea'

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Jumbo-Visma might have continued their clean sweep of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour of Britain with a fifth stage win in a row on Thursday, but after 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Olav Kooij's quartet of sprint wins, few 🔯would'v𝓡e predicted a solo win on the flat stage to Felixstowe.
With the break 🌳caught and the peloton all together on the final run to the finish, the Dutch squad found themselves in a familiar position of control at the head of the peloton, ready to 🐻set up another Kooij victory.
Taking them from the 3km to 1km marks were Nathan Van Hooydonck and Eduardo Affini, dragging the group along for one last blast to the line, led out by 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Wout van Aert. But there would be no lead-out, with Kooij instead✱ letting the wheel go on the final left-hande🥀r as Van Aert sped away.
𓆏The few seconds of hesitation from the likes of Bora-Hansgrohe, Movistar, and Ineos Grenadiers behind Kooij was enough to let Van Aer🤡t build enough of a lead to stay away for the win – powered at over 800 watts, mind – and take the race lead by three seconds.
"Yesterday evening we looked at the final corners talking about the lead-out. At first, it came up as a joke/idea but then we sta🧔rted to think about𒁏 it," Van Aert said after the finish. "We knew that even if someone responded immediately the bunch would still be stretched out and Olav would have a good chance of winning the sprint.
"We tried something else, and I think that's👍 a nice thing about cycling &n🧜dash; enough times it's boring and you can [predict] what will happen and it's nice to spice things up.
"I'm feeling really happy, of course. It's always tricky to make a plan like th🌠at and if you can execute it like this it gives a lot of satisfaction.ꦬ Another great day for the team and I'm really proud of this one."
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Believe it or not, Jumbo-Visma's fifth win of the week – and 57th of 2023 – is only Van Aert's third of the season. With a three-second lead in a race with no time bonuses and only the final stage featuring any major hills,𓃲 he's now on track to repeat the overall victory he claimed two years ago.
"This race has no bonuses so you can even say it's a big margin. Now people will have to drop me to get the lead in the overall so it's a good situation heading into the last♋ weekend," Van Aert said, before Kooij confirmed that the team would be working for his superstar lead-out man on the final two stages.
"I'm really happy that he helped me win those four and I'm really happy to do something like this as a team today," the 21-year-old said. "We also knew that Wout winning this stage with a possible gap could be really important for GC, so obviously for the last weekend, we'♕ll be all about Wout. Tomorrow we will see.
"I think we tried to surprise everyone, and I think 🎃we did pretty well," he added.
At a race criticised by some fans over the lack of variety in finishes – four days out of four concluded with bunch sprints, while stages 5 and 6 were also suited to the fastm🦋en – Van Aert's win provided a welcome respite and an injection of excitement.
It may have continued the Jumbo-Visma monopoly on the eight-day race from ♉Manchester to South Wales, but the dramatic late move was still a thriller.
"I couldn't believe I heard the guys screaming in the radio and the moment I looked behind I saw I had a decent gap. From there it was flat out to the finish," he said, before addressing the huge power numbers – an average over 800 watts – he generated with his finis🐽hing attack.
"That was necessary to hold off the fast sprinters. It's a good effort that I usually have in the legsꦿ for the short efforts. I tried to force myself to not look behind too much and just pedal all the way to💫 the line. I also hoped to have a little gap on the bunch looking to the GC.
"I just went fl♍at-out to the line and celebrated afterwards," he concluded.

Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publica🥀tions in the cycling worဣld, including Cycling Weekly and Rouleur.