Team Sky produce a consummate team display to keep Sir Bradley Wiggins and Ian Stannard top of the Tour of Britain standings.
Wiggins and Stannard defend Team Sky 1-2
Team Sky produced the consummate team performance on the fifth stage of the Tour of Britain to ensure Sir Bradley Wiggins and Ian Stannard retained their places at the top of the overall standings.
Josh Edmondson, Bernhard Eisel and Mathew Hayman rode hard for over 150km in order to control the peloton as they headed onto the two ascents of Caerphilly Mountain, and then David Lopez and Stannard chased down repeated attacks in the last 13km before shepherding Wiggins into an elite group of 15 riders who emerged to contest the stage win.
It was Sam Bennett who was the surprise victor, with the AN Post Chain Reaction rider timing his late sprint to perfection to outpace Michal Golas (Omega Pharma – Qucik-Step) and Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) in Caerphilly.
Wiggins and Stannard rolled home in seventh and ninth places respectively to defend their positions at the top of the general classification, where Wiggins still sits 37 seconds ahead of his team-mate.
Once he'd climbed down from the podium, Wiggins was able to reflect on the day's events and heaped praise on the riders who had helped him stay in the gold jersey.
He said: "I knew the route today because I rode it last week and I knew it was going to be the queen stage of the race. I keep saying it but you're nothing without your team and the boys rode all day once again to control the race.
"In the end I used David Lopez and Ian for as long as possible, right to the last kilometre, and they left me with nothing to do other than sit there until the end.
"I don't have the accelerations on the climbs that Dan [Martin] and Nairo Quintana have, but I just time trial because I know how to pace my effort and it works - I won the Tour de France like that.
"It's been a long road to get back to the level I'm at now, but I've worked hard for a good 20 weeks to be in this condition and this is what it's all about."
Solid defence
The action had begun under rainy skies in the heart of Machynlleth and four riders slipped away shortly after the race had exited the neutrilised zone.
As the conditions cleared, the quartet built a lead of three minutes before Team Sky decided enough was enough and began keeping them in check. Once again, Eisel, Edmondson and Hayman all took long turns on the front, and the escapee’s ranks were weakened when they lost Peter Williams (Team IG) as they prepared for the first of two ascents up Caerphilly Mountain.
It was shortly after that when Alex Dowsett produced the first significant move of the day by pushing ahead with Movistar team-mate Quintana on his wheel. Edmondson reacted brilliantly to haul that pair back however, and also swept up the remnants of the breakaway before they began their final two climbs of the day.
Quintana attacked once again when the road had ramped upwards, and even though he had Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani Valvole) for company as they crested the summit, the duo were brought back to heel on the descent which followed.
Quintana was clearly in an combative mood as the Colombian sprung clear for a third time on the third and final ascent, and on that occasion Martin (Garmin-Sharp) and Sergio Pardilla (Team MTN) both went with him as they clambered through the massed ranks on the mountain.
Lopez and Stannard's late efforts proved more than a match for their rivals, and the duo restored parity with just 2.5km remaining. By then only 15 riders remained at the head of affairs and it was Bennett who proved the fastest finisher by sweeping around the final corner and wrapping up his third win of the season.
Full focused
Friday sees the race move back into England for a short but potentially decisive stage which ends with a summit finish in Haytor and Wiggins is keeping firmly focused on the job in hand.
He added: "We'll take it as another day on Friday and we won't be underestimating anyone. We lost Alex Dowsett from the GC battle today, so that's another one down, and we'll keep plugging away as we aim to stay in control of this jersey."
Sports Director Servais Knaven agreed that staying in gold is now the team's sole objective, and with the performances they have shown so far, he believes his riders are more than capable of achieving that goal.
He told us: "I’m really happy with how the team are riding this week - they all deserve praise because there’s only six of them here, but they are doing the work of nine riders. They’ve been racing really smartly by not following every attack and instead they’re riding steadily to bring everything back together.
"We’ll be looking to continue that tomorrow. It’s going to be another hard day with that last climb at the end, but we’re so close now to London that the team is super motivated to defend the jersey and Bradley is looking in really good form. They all have good morale and they’re ready to defend this jersey all the way to Whitehall."
