Marc de Maar (UnitedHealthcare) soloed to a stunning victory to win stage five of the Tour of Britain, while Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) regained the overall lead from Mark Cavendish (Team Sky).
De Maar attacked from a 23-strong breakaway with six kilometres remaining and kept the chasing group at bay to win the 46.9km stage to Stoke-on-Trent.
Stage two winner Howard finished fifth on the stage to move back into the gold leader’s jersey after Cavendish finished more than 12 minutes back on the first truly selective stage of this year’s Tour of Britain.
“I rode an aggressive race, I had some attacks myself and luckily I had good legs and could stay with those at the front,” said Howard.
“I’ll be having a few problems up the climbs and I can’t see myself still in the gold jersey by the end of the week but I’m going to try.
“I knew Cavendish was struggling with the climbs early in the stage, so when the crunch came I knew he wasn’t going to go. When the break happened, I just made sure I went with them.”
Tour of Britain stage five – result
1) Marc De Maar (AHO) – UnitedHealthcare
2) Sep Vanmarcke (BEL) – Garmin-Sharp +15″
3) Boy Van Poppel (NED) – UnitedHealthcare – same time
4) Nathan Haas (AUS) – Garmin-Sharp
5) Leigh Howard (AUS) – Orica-GreenEdge
6) Sam Bennett (IRL) – An Post-Sean Kelly
7) Damiano Caruso (ITA) – Liquigas-Cannondale
8) Leopold Koenig (CZE) – Team NetApp
9) Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (GBR) – Endura Racing
10) Jérôme Coppel (FRA) – Saur-Sojasun
General classification
1) Leigh Howard (A- US) Orica-GreenEdge – 20.38.35
2) Boy Van Poppel (NED) – UnitedHealthcare +7”
3) Sep Vanmarcke (BEL) – Garmin-Sharp +17”
4) Nathan Haas (AUS) – Garmin-Sharp +23”
5) Christian Knees (GER) – Team Sky +24”
6) Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (GBR) – Endura Racing
7) Damiano Caruso (ITA) – Liquigas-Cannondale
8) Christopher Jones (USA) – UnitedHealthcare +34”
9) Bartosz Huzarski (POL) – Team Netapp +2.02
10) David Le Lay (FRA) – Saur-Sojasun – ST
