Ally Wollaston wins 2025 Lloyds Tour of Britain with a battle for the ages as Wiebes takes stage 4

The 2025 Lloyds Tour of Britain Women concluded with one of the closest fights for the general classification in the race's history on stage 4 in the city of Glasgow. The European champion, Lorena Wiebes claimed the stage honours, but signficantly, there was a change in the general classfication.

Ally Wollaston won the three intermediate sprints and finished 3rd on the stage to dislodge Cat Ferguson on the top step of the podium to become the champion of the 10th Tour of Britain Women. 

"I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I'm so happy," Wollaston said on the podium after the stage. "Firstly, just a massive thank you to my teammates, I couldn't have done it without them today. There were a few moments of doubt, and they really helped me pull it together in the final." Wollaston said as she acknowledged the role of her teammates. "This means the world to me, it's my first WorldTour victory GC, so yeah it's really awesome."

When asked about her tactics, Wollaston said, "I started three seconds down today, and I knew I needed to get every second I could from the bonus sprints, and unfortunately, Cat [Ferguson] was right on my wheel every time, so it really came down to the last sprint."

In the end, Wollaston won the general classification, four seconds ahead of Ferguson and 22 seconds ahead of Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) in third. It's fair to say that both Wollaston and Ferguson played their part in one of the most exciting editions of the Tour of Britain Women in the race's history.

Stage 4 of the 2025 Tour of Britain Women was set for a thrilling finale on a fast 8.4 kilometre Glasgow city circuit, with 10 laps on the menu. Interestingly, laps 4, 6, and 8 were dubbed ‘sprint laps’ with bonus seconds available for the first three riders across the line on these laps. With only 3 seconds separating race leader Ferguson at the start of the stage and Ally Wollaston, both of whom are fast finishers, these sprint laps were set to be pivotal in deciding who would win the 2025 Tour of Britain Women.

Importantly for the riders, weather conditions were much more favourable compared to the previous day’s queen stage, which saw torrential conditions that influenced the outcome of the race.

As expected, each intermediate sprint was hotly contested between Ferguson and Wollaston, with the latter getting the better of her rival on the first two sprints. The second of which came down to a photo finish, illustrating the fine margins that would decide the 2025 Tour of Britain Women.

This also meant that ahead of the final intermediate sprint on lap 8, the race was swinging in the balance, and tensions were high. Things were only amplified as Ferguson had to make a swift bike change on lap 7, but was able to return to the peloton just in time for the final intermediate sprint despite the ferocious pace in the peloton. In the sprint at the end of lap 8, it was once again Wollaston who claimed the three bonus seconds, whilst Ferguson took two. This left the duo level in the virtual general classification with only the final sprint at the end of the stage remaining to split them.

Shortly after this intermediate sprint, Anna Morris (Great Britain) launched an impressive attack, and it took a strong and concerted chase to catch the 29-year-old British rider on the final lap, only a few kilometres from the finish line. The fight for position inside the final few kilometres was frantic, with plenty of tense moments on this technical circuit around Glasgow. It was Lidl-Trek who found themselves in the prime position with 3 kilometres remaining, as SD Worx-Protime and Picnic PostNL found themselves towards the front as well with their sprinters Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) and Charlotte Kool (Picnic PostNL), respectively.

Into the final sprint, and it was the European champion Wiebes, who launched her sprint first and cruised to victory ahead of Kool to take a record seventh stage win at the Tour of Britain Women. Behind, Wollaston finished 3rd, taking four bonus seconds on the line, which was enough for the Kiwi to become the champion of the 10th Tour of Britain Women. In the end, Wollaston won the general classification, four seconds ahead of Ferguson and 22 seconds ahead of Swinkels in third.