Remco Evenepoel roars to hilltop victory at Tour of Britain
Stage 5 featuring two ascents of the Tumble climb, was always likely to have an important say on the general classification of the 2025 Lloyds Tour of Britain
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) sprinted to victory atop the Tumble on the Queen stage of the 2025 Lloyds Tour of Britain ahead of Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL).
The Olympic champion proved the strongest and fastest in the uphill sprint from a reduced group of riders, after a flurry of attacks on the Tumble climb.
It marks the first victory since his abandon at the Tour de France and sixth success of 2025, a sign that the 25-year-old is heading in the right direction ahead of the World Championships in Rwanda later in September.
Race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) finished fifth on the stage, only losing 10 bonus seconds to Evenepoel, meaning the Frenchman remains in the green jersey with one stage remaining.
Grégoire leads Evenepoel by two seconds, with Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) in third at four seconds. Onley sits fourth at eight seconds ahead of Sunday's finale.
How it unfolded
Finlay Tarling (Israel-Premier Tech), Henrik Pedersen (Uno-X Mobility), Noa Isidore (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Frederik Frison (Q36.5), Axel Huens (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Rafael Reis (Anicolor/Tien 21), Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise), and Patrick Boje Frydkjær (Lidl-Trek) formed the day’s breakaway, with the advantage to the peloton holding around the two-minute mark for the majority of their time in front.
Onto the first ascent of the Tumble, with 50km remaining, Remco Evenepoel made a move and was marked by the race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and his teammate Quinten Pacher. For the remainder of the climb, Pacher set a strong tempo in the peloton, much to the delight of his teammate, with the tempo deterring any potential attacks.
In the breakaway, Isidore, Reis, and Frydkjær went clear from their fellow breakaway companions, before the latter was distanced, leaving a duo of riders out front. Reis crossed the line first to claim the maximum points at the summit of the Tumble ahead of Isidore, whilst Pacher led the reduced peloton through in fifth behind Frydkjær and Frison in between in no man’s land.
All the breakaway riders were swept up on the descent before Hartthijs De Vries (Unibet Tietema Rockets) launched an attack from the race leaders' group with 39km remaining.
Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise) launched a move in an attempt to bridge across to De Vries, whose advantage had grown to over 30 seconds, and the junction was made by the Belgian rider with 29km remaining.
Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) picked up one second at the intermediate sprint behind the front duo. Meanwhile, the gap between the front and the chase breached a minute with 17km remaining.
Deweirdt and De Vries had an advantage of just over 20 seconds over a charging peloton at the foot of the Tumble, with British champion Sam Watson leading the peloton, and the escapees were caught soon after.
Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) launched an attack with 3.3km remaining with Evenepoel on the wheel, before the Belgian rolled in front. Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain-Victorious) was next to go, with Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) the first to bridge the gap. Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Thomas Gloag (Visma | Lease a Bike) were also quick to close the gap.
AJ August (Ineos Grenadiers) tried a move with 2.6km remaining, but Evnepoel refused to let the young American gain any sort of gap.
With 2km to go, Evenepoel set a strong enough tempo to try and deter attacks before Sivakov made the strongest attack yet, and only Onley was able to follow initially, before Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) jumped across.
Evenepoel recognised the threat and launched another move behind but backed off when he saw the number of riders glued to his wheel, and his teammate Ilan Van Wilder took to the tempo duties and brought back the front trio, continuing to set the pace inside the final kilometre with around 15 riders in the front group, including the race leader Romain Grégoire.
August tried one more move, but couldn’t get clear as it became clear that the stage would be decided in a reduced group sprint.
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) led the sprint out for Eulálio before Evenepoel launched his powerful effort, with Gloag the closest challenger, but nobody was able to topple the rampant Belgian.
