Wout van Aert produced a blistering finish over the final kilometre to win stage five of the Tour of Britain in Felixstowe.
The 28-year-old Belgian had led out Jumbo-Visma team-mate Olav Kooij to a record-equaling four straight wins in the previous stages.
But in a premeditated team move, 2021 Tour winner Van Aert caught the peloton cold by bursting clear to finish three seconds ahead of the field, with Great Britain's Ethan Vernon second and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Danny van Poppel in third.
Sam Bennett had entered the day in the top three in general classification, but he finished 73rd in stage five, dropping him to 65th overall.
Rory Townsend [Bolton Equities Black Spoke] remains inside the top 20, currently on 14th, after a 57th place finish in the peloton on Thursday.
Ryan Mullen was 20 seconds back from Van Aert, leaving him 59th in the overall standings.
It was the first time in this year’s race that a stage has been won with a time gap after all four previous stages were won by Kooij in bunched sprint finishes, but Jumbo-Visma maintained their dominance.
Van Aert moved top of the general classification with Vernon, Movistar’s Max Kanter and overnight leader Kooij listed second, third and fourth respectively in a cluster of 54 riders just three seconds back.
Ineos Grenediers’ Tom Pidcock finished the stage’s 192.4km-course, which started and finished in Felixstowe, in ninth place.
A three-man breakaway of American Joey Rosskopf (Q36.5 Pro), Callum Ormiston (Global 6) and Abram Stockman (TDT-Unibet) held a lead of one minute 58 seconds over the peloton with 100km to go.
South Africa’s Ormiston dropped off with 17km remaining and Stockman was caught by the peloton soon after, leaving American Rosskopf briefly out in front on his own before he was swallowed up with 8km left.
