Daniel Martin stayed seventh overall in the Tour of Britain at the end of the seventh stage, with he and cousin Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) finishing in the main bunch on a lumpy race to Edinburgh. The stage was won by the Belgian rider Yves Lampaert (Deceunick-QuickStep), who was quickest out of a three-man breakaway group which stayed clear to the line. He beat the American Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) and the British rider Matthew Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) in the gallop, with two other breakaway riders trailing in just over 30 seconds back.
The peloton rolled in one minute and 51 seconds behind but none of the breakaway riders were a threat to the general classification. Ethan Hayter continues to hold a four second lead over Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), while Martin and Roche stay seventh and 11th overall. They are one minute 10 seconds and two minutes two seconds behind Hayter heading into Sunday’s final stage, an undulating stage to Aberdeen which is unlikely to dramatically change the overall standings.
Another Irishman, Rory Townsend (Canyon dhb SunGod) continues to sit second overall in the King of the Mountains classification and third in the sprints competition.
Meanwhile it was a tough day for the riders in the Elite women’s road race at the European championships, with the difficult course in Trento, Italy, seeing a huge rate of attrition. Only 32 riders out of 102 starters finished the event, due largely to the short race laps and the resulting insistence of the race organisers’ that those who were detached from the main bunch withdraw.
The Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk soloed to victory, one minute and 18 seconds ahead of Liane Lippert (Germany) and Rasa Leleivyte (Lithuania). Ireland’s two entrants, Megan Armitage and Ellen McDermott, were amongst the many non-finishers, but they did pick up important experience for the future.
Tour of Britain (2.Pro)
Stage 7 Hawick to Edinburgh: 1 Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) 194.8 kilometres in 4 hours 39 mins 9, 2 M Jorgenson (Movistar Team), 3 M Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) both same time, 4 D Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 35, 5 P Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma) at 41, 6 E Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) at 1 min 51
Irish: 39 N Roche (Team DSM), 55 D Martin (Israel Start-up Nation), 59 B Healy (Trinity Racing) all same time, 89 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) at 7 mins 24
General classification after stage 7: 1 Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) 27 hours 34 mins 32, 2 W Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) at 4 secs, 3 J Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 21, 4 M Honoré (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 35, 5 M Woods (Israel Start-up Nation) at 54, 6 R Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) at 1 min 8
Irish: 7 D Martin (Israel Start-up Nation) at 1 min 10, 13 N Roche (Team DSM) at 2 mins 2, 53 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) at 20 mins 5, 58 B Healy (Trinity Racing) at 23 mins 19
Points classification: Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) 76
Mountains classification: 1 Jacob Scott (Canyon DHB Sungod) 66, 2 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) 30, 3 N Sessler (Global 6 Cycling) 28
Sprints classification: 1 Jacob Scott (Canyon DHB Sungod) 26, 2 R Carpenter (Rally Cycling) 9, 3 R Townsend (Canyon DHB Sungod) 9
Teams classification: 1 Deceuninck-QuickStep 82 hours 4 mins 46, 2 Ineos Grenadiers at 23, 3 Team DSM at 3 mins 23
Other: 6 Israel Start-up Nation at 7 mins 58, 11 Canyon dhb SunGod at 14 mins 37, 13 Trinity Racing at 22 mins 32
European road championships, Trento, Italy
Elite women's road race: 1 Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) 107.2 kilometres in 2 hours 50 mins 35, 2 L Lippert (Germany) at 1 min 18, 3 R Leleivyte (Lithuania), 4 K Niewiadoma (Poland), 5 D Vollering (Netherlands), 6 M Cavalli (Italy)
Other: DNF M Armitage (Ireland), DNF E McDermott (Ireland)
