Cyclingheroes

Tour of Britain : Manning takes final stage, Feillu overall winner

Paul Manning took the final stage (picture: © Mark Epton)

Picture gallery: Tour of Britain, stage 5, Liverpool - Kendal

Feillu’s win was achieved on count back to the Crystal Palace Prologue after he won an intermediate sprint early in the stage to move himself level with overnight leader Adrian Palomares after seven days of hard racing. The French rider possessed the better time counted to the tenth of a second and so took victory in the fourth Tour of Britain.

Following the stage the Agritubel rider paid tribute to his team saying: "It was never easy today but there are some good rouleurs on the team who worked hard for me. With three seconds gap on General Classification it was always possible, so when I took the sprint the team worked hard to control the break."

A five rider break went away early on in the stage, with Andy Tennant leading them across the E.ON King of the Mountains climb of Clovehead. This ensured that Ben Swift of the Barloworld team would win the E.ON King of the Mountains competition, something he was immediately aware of on the road.

"I’d done the maths the night before so I knew when I won and I could try and relax a bit. The director did come over the radio and say well done though. It was nice to know I’d managed to pull it off as it was something I’d wanted to do before the race began."

The race was all back together by the time of the sprint at Drumlanrig Castle where Feillu picked up that crucial time bonus to move into the race lead. Another five man break, containing eventual stage winner Manning, then escaped taking all the bonus seconds at the following two intermediate sprints, ensuring the battle for the Yellow Jersey would go right down to the line on Glasgow Green.

The peloton, being driven by T-Mobile, were catching the five escapees as the race headed into the outskirts of Glasgow, but left it too late to make the catch before the line.

Instead as the race reached the last kilometre, Paul Manning jumped away to ride to victory by seven seconds from Italy’s Salvatore Commesso and Kurt Hovelijnck, the perfect gift for his wedding in just five days time.

Speaking afterwards Manning said: "It was hard racing, unbelievably hard. We just kept coming through and through hoping not to get caught. I was just waiting for as long as I could before I did anything then with a kilometre to go they hesitated and I was away."

With the break away riders scooping up all the time bonuses at the finish, it meant the final Yellow Jersey was Feillu’s, though the day didn’t go entirely his way. With Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish leading the bunch in to take sixth place, the Agritubel rider could only manage 20th, finishing out of the points and so handing Cavendish the Points Jersey.

The rider from the Isle of Man also took the Sprints Jersey, rounding out an excellent week for him after he won the opening two stages.

After the stage Cavendish praised his team saying: "I was a little bit dead after yesterday and it was hard to begin with. But we had a great team to protect me. It was unbelievable what they gave in the end. Unfortunately we didn’t catch the group, but I’m not so bothered as I’ve got four wins. The team have done tremendous work all week for me so it would have been nice to get another stage, but we got the Green Jersey instead."

Race reports