Highlights from stage seven of the Tour of Britain 2023, held between Tewkesbury to Gloucester on Saturday 9 September.
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00:00 Stage 7 on the Tour of Britain, the first of two stages on the final weekend of racing that would surely determine the outcome of the general classification.
00:10 Wout Van Aert in the leader's jersey with a 3 second time gap, over 50 riders in the general classification all at 3 seconds.
00:18 Jumbo Visma either going to go on the offensive and try and put the race to bed definitively and take another stage win,
00:24 or they'd have to defend against a series of other teams with big ambitions.
00:28 A climb in the early part of the race forced a few riders off the fronts to try and get a little bit of slipping room on the first climb of the day,
00:37 which would be followed in quick succession by the first categorised climb of Winchcombe Hill shortly thereafter.
00:42 A very active start to the race saw Luc Rowe and Ineos Grenadiers off the front.
00:47 One by one, riders launching attacks as the first uncategorised climb of the day got near.
00:55 James Foucher in the King of the Mountains jersey with Abrams Stockmann once again on the offensive.
01:01 Trying to hold on to get to Winchcombe Hill and pick up a potential further 6 points for a Category 2 climb.
01:08 Team TDT Unibet then, launching another rider up the road.
01:13 Hartijs de Vries joining Abrams Stockmann and James Foucher at the front of the race.
01:21 Then as they got closer to the climbs, the race became ever more active. Trinity Racing getting involved.
01:26 And Ben Turner and a series of other riders, including Camille Bonneau, also getting up the road.
01:35 They were joined then by Paddy Bevin and a rider from Q36.5 in Joey Roscoff.
01:47 As they passed through vast crowds in hot sunshine and a little bit of a spill for Jos van Emden,
01:53 the loyal domestique of Jumbo Visma on the deck and looking accusingly at Carlos Verona from Movistar.
01:59 Movistar who would see the abandon of Max Cantor and also racing without Fernando Gaviria who didn't finish the previous day.
02:06 Ben Turner then attacking on the categorised climb of Winchcombe Hill and joined by Mark Donovan of Q36.5.
02:14 Two British riders then over the top of the climb. James Foucher picking up four points in the King of the Mountains competition for third place.
02:22 And then Nathan Van Hoidonk bringing the rest of the peloton over the top of the climb.
02:26 Jumbo Visma then settling into a rhythm and controlling the race.
02:31 As a counterattack of three riders went clear and they made it five riders eventually off the front.
02:37 The decision that Mark Donovan and Ben Turner had to make was whether or not they would wait for the counterattacking riders behind.
02:44 This was the counterattack then animated once again by Abram Stockman, the ever aggressive rider from TDT Unibet.
02:51 And he was joined by James Richardson of Alex Richardson I should say of Team St. Pirren and the young Australian Liam Johnson from Trinity Racing.
03:01 That made it five riders and that was the break of the day.
03:04 Jumbo Visma with their whole team on the front.
03:08 Passing through Chipping Sodbury just to the northeast of Bristol.
03:13 And passing through gorgeous Cotswold countryside that was providing sapping racing in intense heat for the riders on stage seven of the Tour of Britain.
03:23 For most of the day they had an advantage of two minutes and 45 seconds as they got ever closer to the finishing line in Gloucester.
03:31 An up and over the Crawley Hill climb with a slender lead intact.
03:35 And on Crawley Hill Wout van Aert isolated after his team had collapsed around him, attacked and dragged a little group clear.
03:43 One more uncategorized climb of significance still to come though.
03:47 Bodo Hansgrohe attacking to try and bring the race back together again and get across to the Wout van Aert group.
03:56 A crash then on the next uncategorized climb for Carlos Rodriguez of the Ineos Grenadiers.
04:01 And Wout van Aert launching another big attack and this time getting a gap on everybody else.
04:07 And looking like it might be the big race winning move around about 10 kilometers from the finish line.
04:12 Getting up to the front of the race, sweeping past Ben Turner and Mark Donovan and Liam Johnson.
04:18 Turner battling hard to get onto the wheel of Wout van Aert and succeeding in doing so with Donovan as well on his wheel.
04:24 Then a massive attack from Great Britain's Stevie Williams of the Israel Premier Tech team.
04:28 Saw him roar up to the front of the race, glance at Wout van Aert, sit on the front and then start to work with van Aert and Donovan and Ben Turner to try and take this move to the line.
04:39 Behind they were getting organized.
04:41 DSM and Bodo Hansgrohe both looking after their sprinters respectively.
04:45 Brought it closer. Danny van Poppel tried to bridge all on his own across that gap.
04:50 Followed by Gregor Mühlberger and Zeb Kiffin of St. Pirren.
04:53 And Danny van Poppel with one mighty effort managed to get across to the four riders at the front of the race.
04:59 Then Wout van Aert on the outskirts of Gloucester attacked again and it looked like he might have the race won before just outside one kilometer to go.
05:06 With Niels Pollitt hunting him down on the front for Bodo Hansgrohe to bring it back for a sprint for Danny van Poppel.
05:12 Wout van Aert was caught. Pollitt then catching van Aert in the final kilometer.
05:17 Getting onto his wheel and not relenting. Keeping it, the pace high for his teammate Danny van Poppel who had latched onto the wheel of Rasmus Tiller.
05:25 One of two Uno X riders.
05:27 When Pollitt could do no more, Tobias Johannesson took it up to lead out for Rasmus Tiller.
05:33 Tiller opening up his sprint. Danny van Poppel following suit.
05:37 But Tiller holding off the Dutchman to take a win for Norway and a first win ever at Uno for Uno X at the Tour of Britain.
05:44 A powerful sprint by Rasmus Tiller celebrated by his teammate Tobias Johannesson.
05:49 And both those riders still in contention also for the overall.
05:53 But Niels Pollitt coming over the line nine seconds down had chased that group down.
05:57 Here's the GC then. All the other riders in the top ten apart from Wout van Aert are at three seconds and the race is still not yet won for the Belgian.
06:06 the Belgian.