For the first time since 2016, the Tour of Britain has a home winner. Having used his two stage victories earlier in the week in Redcar and Barnsley to establish a solid GC lead, Welshman Stevie Williams completed the job in Sunday’s final stage in the East of England.
Williams, whose previous best result in his home tour was 14th, claimed the GC by 16 seconds ahead of Oscar Onley (DFP). Teammate Joe Blackmore finished fifth overall in his first participation in his home race.
IPT’s impressive week was capped off with a fourth place at the finish in Felixstowe for another British rider, Ethan Vernon, who recorded his fourth top-five result in the race. Vernon also won the points classification, and after a brilliant display of teamwork all week, all six IPT riders took to the podium as the best team of the race.
For Williams, this was his third GC victory in 13 months, sitting alongside the Arctic Race of Norway last August and the Tour Down Under in January. The 28-year-old’s career-best year now includes six wins in 2024, one more than the rest of his career combined.
He says: “It doesn’t get much better than winning your home race. My name will always have this race underneath it. I’m really proud to have been part of this team this week – the riders and staff have been amazing. It has been a great week.”
Far from being the ceremonial or straightforward ending, a stage that featured under 1,000 meters of elevation from start to finish was illuminated by a gusty breeze coming in from the nearby North Sea. But Williams never looked like losing his race lead; together with Simon Clarke and Jake Stewart, two of the team’s three unsung heroes this week, he was always on the right side of the splits in the peloton.
“It was quite a complicated day in the end,” Williams adds. “A lot of teams tried to take it to us, which made it quite difficult. But we controlled the start really well, and then DSM tried to create some chaos in the wind.
“But I found myself in a small group with Jake and Simon, so that was fine for us. All we had to do was manage things, we could stay in the right wheels, we didn’t have to ride on the front foot. In the end the second group with Ethan came back and we tried to set it up for him in the sprint.”
Vernon’s week ended with another strong placing in the sprint – this was his first road race since May’s Giro d’Italia – and a final day crash involving French rider Paul Magnier meant that he was rewarded for his consistency in the shape of the points jersey.
The British rider has finished in the top five in nine of the last 14 stages in his home tour. “There are some good things to learn from this week,” says Vernon. “I set myself up for a good sprint today but I didn’t have the legs in the end.
”This wasn’t the way I wanted to win the points jersey with Magnier crashing out, but I’m really happy with Stevie’s result. We all gave 100% to him and that’s why he came home with the win.”
Unsurprisingly given how impressive the IPT performance was this week, the team classification prize also came our way.
DS Sam Bewley was full of praise for the whole team, saying: “The guys were brilliant again today. On paper it was a sprint stage but with the wind we knew it was a dangerous. Once again the guys were all over it.
“It was a pleasure to watch this group race together and they always kept the race in our favor. We are stoked for Stevie and his teammates deserve a lot of credit for their work as well.”
