Bol beats Wellens in two-up sprint on Tour of Britain stage 4

Cees Bol (Decathlon CMA CGM) won stage 4 of the Tour of Britain in Leyburn, holding off Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in a two-up sprint after the pair went clear on the Redmire climb.

Fabio Christen (Pinarello Q36.5) was third at 21 seconds, with Filippo Ganna leading the peloton home a further nine seconds back. Bol had last won on stage 2 of the 2022 Tour of Britain, and this is the seventh professional victory of his career.

Six riders formed the day's move: Bol, Ben Swift (Netcompany INEOS), Xandro Meurisse (Pinarello Q36.5), Ian López (Modern Adventure Pro Cycling), Brem Deman (Team Flanders-Baloise) and Boas Lysgaard (BHS-PL Beton Bornholm).

López took the intermediate sprint at Ripon and then led over Greenhow, 3.3km at 7.9 per cent, from Meurisse and Lysgaard. He won the Kidstones climb as well, from Deman and Meurisse.

The gap peaked at 3:20 with 119km remaining before UAE Team Emirates-XRG took up the chase, with Nils Politt, Mikkel Bjerg and Felix Großschartner all spending time on the front.

Wellens bridged to the leaders on the approach to Redmire with Elliot Rowe (Great Britain), and the peloton split behind. Meurisse was dropped from the front group at 42 kilometres to go, leaving Wellens and Bol alone.

The pair worked together over the closing 40km, their advantage hovering around a minute before falling inside the last ten. Kamil Małecki (Pinarello Q36.5) attacked from the peloton with 1.3 kilometres left but could not close.

Bol sat on Wellens's wheel through the final kilometre and came past inside the last 100 metres.