Steve Cummings wins Tour of Britain as Caleb Ewan takes stage 8

Steve Cummings claims only the second stage-race win of his career

Steve Cummings completed overall victory at the Tour of Britain by defending his lead on a flat final stage in central London won by Caleb Ewan.

Cummings (Dimension Data) crossed the finish line on Regent Street safely in the peloton to seal the title by 26 seconds from runner-up Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) and 38 seconds from third-placed Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin).

It is only the second stage-race victory of the 35-year-old's career and improves on his second-place finishes in the 2008 and 2011 editions.

Caleb Ewan sprinted to victory on stage eight

The triumph also continues an excellent season in which Cummings had already won stages of the Tour de France, Criterium du Dauphine, Tour of the Basque Country and Tirreno-Adriatico.

Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) sprinted to victory ahead of runner-up Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and third-placed Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal).

The peloton passes Piccadilly Circus on stage eight

Debusschere almost won the stage solo after he launched a surprise attack in the final 1km, but he was chased down by the sprinters and was overtaken by Ewan and Groenewegen in the last 20m.

Ewan said: "Lotto in the end tried to mix it up a little bit. I'm not sure why Greipel is not sprinting so much in this race, so I didn't expect that because I thought he was going to go for the win himself. They let Debusschere go himself up the road and luckily we caught him on the line."

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Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) did not contest the sprint and finished 10 seconds down on Ewan in 44th.

Sir Bradley Wiggins (WIGGINS) ended what is expected to be his final professional road race in Britain by finishing 1min 26sec down in 80th on the day and 1hr 19min 4sec adrift in 105th overall.

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Stage eight result

1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange, 2:09:24
2 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, same time
3 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal, st
4 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Trek-Segafredo, st
5 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky, st
6 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal, st
7 Dan McLay (GB) Great Britain, st
8 Steele von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling, st
9 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
10 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st

General classification

1 Steve Cummings (GB) Dimension Data, 32:30:45
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +26sec
3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing, +38
4 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, +1:02
5 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac, +1:21
6 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +1:26
7 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) An Post-Chain Reaction, +1:48
8 Ben Swift (GB) Team Sky, +1:52
9 Julien Vermote (Bel) Etixx - Quick-Step, +2:12
10 Jacopo Mosca (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, +2:32

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