Stevie Williams made history as he became the first Welshman to win the modern Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men, and the first Brit to win the national tour since 2016.
Williams (Israel – Premier Tech) completed a clean sweep of British riders on the podium, heading home Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) by 16 seconds, with Tom Donnenwirth (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team), a further 36 seconds in arrears.
Matevž Govekar (Bahrain Victorious) won the final 158.4km stage through East Suffolk, as the sixth stage ended in a bunch sprint on Sea Road in Felixstowe.
An early breakaway group of four featuring Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Cole Kessler (Lidl - Trek Future Racing), Mathias Bregnhøj (Sabgal/Anicolor) and Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) gained 30 seconds over the peloton. Samuel Leroux (Van Rysel - Roubaix) and Antoine L'Hote (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team) managed to bridge across and extend the gap to 34 seconds, with Abrahamsen securing the first intermediate sprint win of the day in Beccles, before they were caught with 129km to go.
After a brief moment of calm, Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) attacked hard to make a front group of eight, before Jacob Scott (Rembe Pro Cycling Team Sauerland) and Mathias Bregnhoj (Sabgal/Anicolor) went clear. Pidcock attacked again, with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) in tow as the two bridged over with 110km to go, forcing a gap of 2:10.
The peloton, led by Soudal Quick-Step and Israel - Premier Tech upped the pace in an attempt to reel them back, splintering the peloton into two, and making the catch with 88km to go.
A strong crosswind blew the peloton apart, which threatened to disrupt the standings significantly in the final stage, while a group of 25 including Callum Thornley (TRINITY Racing), Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Williams and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) went off the front.
The second intermediate sprint with 68km to go saw Tom Donnenwirth (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team) take the full points and bonus seconds, moving him up into third on the general classification, above Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling).
The second group took turns on the front to close the gap, before a crash saw Pidcock and treble stage winner Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) abandon the race to make it all to play for coming into the final 35km.
As the peloton came back together, Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team hit the front coming into the final intermediate sprint in Grundisburgh, with Jelte Krijnsen taking the points ahead of Donnenwirth.
Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) attacked solo, with Evenepoel, Thornley and Abrahamsen bridging over, before it came back together and another flurry of attacks put pressure on the reduced peloton. A last gasp effort from Onley - who was 16 seconds off Williams in the general classification - saw Israel - Premier Tech chase furiously and make the catch with less than 20km to go.
A frantic finish saw leadout trains all over the road as the riders entered Felixstowe, with Israel - Premier Tech heading the peloton, with the aim of setting up Ethan Vernon for the finish.
But it was Govekar who timed his sprint to perfection out of the final corner on to the long seaside finish straight, to take the stage victory ahead of Rasmus Pedersen (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team) in second. Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) was just behind in third, also taking the Combativity award of the day while Vernon finished in fourth to take the points jersey and help his Israel - Premier Tech to the team classification.
Speaking after the podium, Williams said:
“It's been a good week and we managed to take everything out of a stage race - a couple of stages and the GC so I'm really happy and proud to have this race. I'm proud of how the boys rode all week, they were fantastic. It's me standing on the podium and winning it but it was definitely a team effort.
“After the Olympics, it was definitely a target of mine to get back into racing and I knew I was coming here in decent form. Luckily I had the legs to show it and pull it off but at the end of the day everything has to go right and everything did go right so I'm really happy.”
Stage winner Govekar, who had finished in the top 10 of three stages previously, said:
“It's been a pretty aggressive week of racing. We came close in a few stages already, it's been a super nice week of racing. I think the stage win shows the picture of a week of racing with the boys and I'm super happy with how they set up the final. I came from the back, with the tailwind I knew that I needed to start the sprint more to the front as they had already started to get into position quite early. I didn't see how close it was but I did a strong sprint and I'm happy I managed to finish first.”
Points champion, Vernon added:
“It wasn't the way I wanted to do it, obviously Magnier crashed out and the sprint didn't go to plan at the end but I'm happy with Stevie's result. It's been a great week for Stevie, we got stuck in to helping him today and put everything into that and managed to bring it home. For me it's been a week of highs and lows, I've got some good stuff to take away and learn from, some negatives but I set myself up for a good sprint today, I just didn't have the legs in the end.”
Thornley held onto the King of the Mountains jersey after a fantastic start to the tour that saw him take the blue jersey on day one in his native Scottish Borders. Fellow Borderer Onley’s second place on the general classification saw him take the best young rider’s jersey. Teammate Sean Flynn finished 10th overall to end a highly successful week for Scottish riders in the tour, with Onley and Thornley the first Scots to finish on the overall podium and win a jersey in their home tour, since Pippa York in 1990.
