Tour of Britain 2005

Het Volk winner Nick Nuyens (Quick.Step) today took the opening stage of the Tour of Britain, outsprinting Team CSC's Michael Blaudzun inside the final 300 metres of the stage to Castle Douglas. The rising Belgian star broke away with the Dane 6km’s from the finish, holding off the 17 man chase group all the way to the line.

These riders were part of a 34-man leading group which went clear early in the stage. With their lead having hovered under two minutes for approximately 80 kilometres until the feed at Drumlandrig Castle, the bunch gave up the chase and the gap consequently jumped back up increasing to over 22 minutes by the finish.

Home favourite Roger Hammond made up for his disappointment in missing the break yesterday when he won today's second stage of the Tour of Britain in Blackpool. The Great Britain rider sprinted home ahead of breakaway companion Robin Sharman (Recycling.co.uk/Litespeed), with another GB rider, 20 year old Mark Cavendish, showing great speed in taking the bunch sprint for third.

There was controversy at the finish as overnight race leader Nick Nuyens (QuickStep) was held up behind a crash. He crossed the line several seconds down and initially the judges awarded the yellow jersey to stage one runner-up Micheal Blaudzun (Team CSC). However this state of affairs only lasted a short time as the Belgian to successfully appealed on the grounds that the mishap had occurred inside the final three kilometres.

The stage itself was defined by a three man breakaway - Hammond, Sharman and Kevin Van Impe (Chocolade Jacques) went clear inside the first 20 kilometres of racing and built up a maximum lead of 10 minutes and 40 seconds. Once the lead tipped over the magical ten minute mark, the inevitable chase began, quickly reducing the gap and setting up a tantalising finale. With five kilometres to go the leaders had just over one minute on the bunch when Van Impe punctured, it seemed almost inevitable that the leaders would be caught. However as Hammond revealed after the stage, he felt that the Belgian had been soft pedalling and his contribution wasn’t missed, both he and Sharman redoubled their efforts and it proved to be enough for them to fight it out for the stage win.

The third stage of the Tour of Britain proved to be another successful one for the Quick.Step team. Luca Paolini beat T-Mobile's Bram Schmitz and eight other breakaway companions to take the win, while Nick Nuyens fended off all attempts by Michael Blaudzun (Team CSC) plus his other rivals to retain his race lead.

The stage was on paper the most difficult of the race with the route from Leeds to Sheffield taking in the category two climbs of Cow and Calf and Oxenhope before the twin peaks of the first cat Holme Moss and Snake Pass.

Stage winner Paolini was part of a 13-man move which went clear inside the first 10 kilometres and stayed clear for the day, while behind world time trial champion Michael Rogers and the rest of the Quick.Step team neutralised all attacks on the yellow jersey of Nick Nuyens.

The decisive break split on the final climb with Paolini, Schmitz, Jose Luis Martinez Jimenez (Comunidad Valenciana) and Barloworld-Valsir's Ryan Cox going clear before regrouping again before the finish. As the group again split, Paolini and Schmitz fought out the win between them before British road race champion Russell Downing (Recycling.co.uk) took third ahead of Tony Bracke (Landbouwkrediet Colnago), Cox and new KOM leader Julian Winn (Wales), The main bunch containing Nuyens, Blaudzun and five others came in 3 minutes and 39 behind the winner.

T-Mobile rider Serguei Ivanov sprinted to his victory on stage four of the Tour of Britain. The 30 year old proved quicker than Scotsman Evan Oliphant, Kazuo Inoue (Bridgestone Anchor) and Paul Manning (Recycling.co.uk) in the final sprint having marked his three breakaway companions on the run in to the finish.

The group of four went clear of the peloton less than five kilometres after the start in Buxton, holding on all day to fight out the victory.

Race leader Nick Nuyens came in as part of the main bunch 10 minutes and 6 seconds behind, retaining his seven second advantage over CSC's Michael Blaudzun going into stage 5’s 4 kilometre time trial. Nuyens' team-mate Luca Paolini outsprinted the highly promising 20 year old fastman Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) to win the bunch gallop, and in doing so strengthened his lead in the points classification.

The stage five time trial in Birmingham provided the final major twist to the general classification of the race. Nick Nuyens (Quick.Step) defended his race lead in style clocking an impressive 4'54.06 on a twisting, technical 4 km course in the city centre.

Team CSC's Kurt Asle Arvesen was second, 0.75 seconds down, while team-mate and Nuyens' closest rival, Michael Blaudzun, was third. He was 1.21 seconds back.

British rider Paul Manning (Recycling.co.uk) was the best of the home riders, placing fourth ahead of World time trial champion Michael Rogers (QuickStep) and fellow Aussie Ben Day (MrBookmaker.com) who completed the top six.

As the race climaxed on the streets of Westminster, it was business as usual with Quick Step taking yet another stage win two sew up both the Yellow and Green jersey competitions in the race.

Leader since day one, Nick Nuyens safely retained his race lead on the concluding stage of the Tour of Britain, finishing 9th in the bunch sprint which decided the Westminster criterium in London. Quick Step team-mate Luca Paolini made it a doubly-successful day for the Belgian team, taking his second victory of the race and with it the green points jersey.

Last year's final stage winner Enrico Degano (Barloworld Valsir) was second in the bunch sprint for the line, with Roger Hammond best of the home riders followed by Irishman Ciarán Power (Navigators Insurance), a fine end to another successful event.

Final Overall Classification