Caleb Ewan sprinted to his second victory of the week in the OVO Energy Tour of Britain, heading home Edvald Boasson Hagen by less than a wheel width to reclaim the overall lead and the OVO Energy Green Jersey in Scunthorpe.
The Orica Scott rider followed up his opening day win in Kelso by outsprinting Boasson Hagen and European Champion Alexander Kristoff, to move six seconds ahead of overnight leader Elia Viviani who finished seventh in the bunch sprint.
“Today was a tough day obviously with the weather,” said Ewan after the rainy conditions that swept the North Lincolnshire leg of the Tour. “So it wasn’t as straight forward as we would have hoped and I think it made it a bit harder.”
“We had to sit at the front all day, taking a bit of the wind and then with the hill coming up close to the finish line that made it a bit tricky as well.”
The bunch brought back the remains of the day’s breakaway with around 15-kilometres of racing to go, with Philippe Gilbert then causing panic among the sprinters teams by jumping clear on the drag up to the line.
“After Gilbert went, I was pretty confident in Luka Mezgec, he knows what he is doing so I could just follow him,” Ewan continued. “He had to go pretty much full gas as soon as he started the lead out so that made it harder for me as well.”
“To be honest, I was on his wheel and pretty pinned. As soon as he swung off I just gave it my all and did a big lunge for the line and luckily I just got the win ahead of Eddie.”
As well as win number two Ewan moves back into the lead of the Wiggle Points Jersey, five points ahead of Viviani.
It was also a brilliant day for Team JLT Condor who managed to get two riders, Graham Briggs and Ian Bibby, in the five-rider breakaway. The duo worked brilliantly together to make sure that between them they took maximum points in all of the day’s intermediate competitions, resulting in Briggs picking up the Eisberg Sprints and SKODA King of the Mountains jerseys.
A terrific day for the team was capped off by Australian sprinter Brenton Jones taking fourth place on the stage overall.
Elsewhere, BIKE Channel Canyon’s Harry Tanfield was awarded the HIGH5 Combativity Award for the day after continually animating the break.
Stage Four of the OVO Energy Tour of Britain takes place in Nottinghamshire with the county hosting its first full stage. The stage begins in Mansfield town centre with the finish alongside Sconce and Devon Park in Newark-on-Trent after 164-kilometres of racing.
