Wout van Aert took a narrow second stage win in the Tour of Britain to retake the leader’s jersey at the midway point.
The Belgian rider edged Julian Alaphilippe on the line in Llandudno to edge into the overall lead, holding a two-second advantage over Tuesday’s time trial leader Ethan Hayter.
Van Aert, of Team Jumbo-Visma, was also victorious on day one and led a pack of five riders who finished within eight seconds of each other.
The quintet of van Aert, Alaphilippe, Michael Woods, Hayter and Mikkel Honoré juked it out in the closing stages of the brutal 210km route between Aberaeron and Great Orme.
@WoutvanAert wins stage four of the @AJBell Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 atop the Great Orme!
📺 Watch the stage live on ITV4#TourOfBritain 🔴🟢⚪ pic.twitter.com/EUVoPpFn7M
— AJ Bell Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) September 8, 2021
Van Aert paid tribute to his team-mates who helped set him up for the stage win.
He said: “It was a super hard finish, especially the first part of the climb was really steep, probably a bit too steep for a guy like me and I knew if I could hang on there I would have my chance.
“The team was amazing. We’re down to five, it’s already small teams but then being with five guys still we were able to control the race. Our plan today was clear, we just wanted to set me up to go for the stage win and everyone was committed to that.
“We also have a young guy like Gijs Leemreize, who is just coming over to the pros and I guess he’s learning a lot but he’s also suffering a lot, because we put him in a lot of work and with someone like Tony (Martin), who can pull the whole day. Pascal (Eenkhorn) and George (Bennett) guided me through the final perfectly.
“Every victory nowadays in cycling is a team victory. Sometimes it seems a bit silly that we start talking about that but it would be a shame not to mention these guys.”
The Tour of Britain heads to north-west England on Thursday, with a 152km route encompassing Alderley Edge and Warrington. It finishes on Sunday with the Stonehaven to Aberdeen route.
Van Aert added: “Of course with only the stage wins there is still 40 bonus seconds coming, so that’s way more than the gap I have now so I need to be ready at every moment of the race.
“I probably need to do a few sprints because Hayter and I guess Alaphilippe will be my main opponents and are both fast guys, so we will see. My focus is Julian and the stage today and the stage tomorrow and then we will see what is coming.”
Israel Start-Up Nation’s Woods came in third, a second behind the leading pair, with Honoré joining his Deceuninck Quick-Step colleague Alaphilippe in the top four. Hayter rounded out the group in fifth.
It gives world champion van Aert an overall time of 14:44:49 for the four stages so far, narrowly ahead of Tokyo silver-medalist Hayter. Alaphilippe is 11 seconds off the lead in third, with Honoré and Woods completing the top five.
Elsewhere in the race there was another King of the Mountains triumph for Jacob Scott, who also claimed the sprints jersey from America’s Robin Carpenter.