Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) overpowered Tord Gudmestad (Decathlon AG2R La Mondaile) at the line to win stage 1 of the Lloyds Tour of Britain.
In the bunch sprint in Southwold, Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) grabbed the final podium spot.
How it unfolded
The opening stage of the six-day Pro-level race was a flat procession from Woodbridge and winding northward to Southwold, for a finish on North Parade near the pier of the seaside town.
One small rise at Mill Hill with 56km to go provided the only KOM points on the day, followed 11.5km later by the lone intermediate sprint at Halesworth.
A quartet struck out as the breakaway of the day across the first 6km in East Suffolk – 21-year-old Brit Joshua Golliker (EF Education-Aevolo) going away with Team Flanders-Balooise duo Milan Lanhove and Victor Vercouillie and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma), the group gaining more than two minutes across the next 5km.
Rain fell midway through the stage with damp roads for Lanhove taking the mountain points and the jersey for stage 2. The sun came out in full force for the sprint contest, also grabbed by Lanhove.
With under 40km to race, Lanhove and his companions saw their gap go under one minute. Visma-Lease a Bike, Picnic-PostNL and Uno-X Mobility remained the most active at the front of the chasing peloton.
With the final 6km to be completed, the peloton had made their catch, with Vercouillie the last of the four to accept reversal of any fortunes.
The peloton charged on a tight procession towards Southwold, compressed on the small roads lined with high hedges, a large group of…
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