Rivals fail to capitalize on Evenepoel's moment of weakness, and then the Belgian wins the stage in the Tour of Britain

After three victories for Visma | Lease a Bike, Groupama-FDJ broke their dominance in the fourth stage. It was Romain Grégoire who struck gold in the hilly stage, immediately becoming the new leader in the general classification. However, his position would immediately come under pressure, because on day five, it was time for the queen stage.

A hilly day would end at The Tumble, a tough final climb in Wales. But in the beautiful Welsh countryside, a group of nine breakaway riders did well in the first half of the stage. Among them were Patrick Frydkjaer (Lidl-Trek), Finlay Tarling (Israel-Premier Tech), and Frederik Frison (Q36.5). The highest-ranked rider was Axel Huens of Unibet Tietema Rockets: the Frenchman was 23 seconds behind Grégoire.

That's why the leading group only got a maximum lead of 2 minutes. With just under 50 kilometers to go, The Tumble was tackled for the first time. There, Soudal Quick-Step picked up the pace, after which Remco Evenepoel tested his legs for the first time. Leader Grégoire immediately dove into the wheel: it wasn't a real acceleration, because it was still a long way to go. It did mean that only about 30 men in the peloton managed to hang on.

At the front, the gap had been opened up completely: Noa Isidore (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Rafael Reis (Anicolor / Tien 21) proved to be the best climbers. They stayed ahead of the peloton the longest, but their adventure was also over with about 40 kilometers to go. It was time to wait for the final climb, but Unibet Tietema Rockets didn't wait. Hartthijs de Vries accelerated: he was later joined by Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders - Baloise).

The pair stayed ahead of the peloton for a long time: they took the bonus points at an intermediate sprint, where number two in the general classification, Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), picked up the last point. De Vries and Deweirdt worked well together and took a comfortable lead of over a minute, but when the final climb came into view, the favorites picked up the pace.

As a result, the two breakaway riders started the final climb of The Tumble with a lead of about 30 seconds over the peloton. When INEOS Grenadiers increased the pace enormously, they were quickly caught: it was up to the favorites in the difficult final! Sam Watson launched Thymen Arensman, but Evenepoel easily parried his attack. The rest of the favorites also stayed with him, after which the Belgian himself increased the pace.

The next acceleration came from Afonso Eulálo, after which Oscar Onley rode up to the Portuguese rider from Bahrain Victorious. However, he did not dare to go it alone, after which a truce ensued: no one wanted to use up their energy too early. Then it was Evenepoel again who set a steady pace.

However, he was left behind by the powerful Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates - XRG). The Frenchman pushed hard, and only Onley was able to follow: later, Eulálio also caught up. It seemed to be over, but the three didn't give each other any favors: everything came back together. Ilan Van Wilder then set the pace for team leader Evenepoel, who finished it off in the sprint.