Lauren Dickson survived an injury scare to win the Queen of the Mountains jersey at the Lloyds Tour of Britain as she continues an impressive breakthrough season. The 26-year-old Scot had suffered a heavy crash on stage four, leaving her to start the final stage in Royal Leamington Spa heavily bandaged, but crossed the line with the blue jersey secured.
Final stage tactics
Having led the mountains classification by 14 points heading into Sunday, Edinburgh-born Dickson only needed to cross the line to secure the jersey she had first been awarded after stage three.
“I didn’t feel amazing on the final stage, but once we had Eva [Van Agt] in the breakaway, it was the perfect situation for us because it meant we were just sitting in the bunch and being attentive to stop any counterattacks,” she explained. “Once the counterattacks had stopped, it was just riding to the line for me.”
Sprint finish and stage record
On the final day, a three-strong group of breakaway riders, including Briton Alice Towers of the Great Britain Cycling Team, threatened the expected sprint finish as they led for 105km. But after the peloton caught them with less than 5km to go, there was no surprise when Lorena Wiebes won the sprint into Royal Leamington Spa to take the record for most stage wins for men or women at the Lloyds Tour of Britain.
Her 11th-ever stage victory at the tour, and fourth of this tour, took her clear of Mark Cavendish and proved her pedigree as one of the best sprinters in the women’s peloton after taking the opening two stages at the Tour de France Femmes at the start of August.
“Winning feels good so I’m happy to finish this week with four victories. The team worked hard for it, at the end I didn’t have many teammates left, but they did everything they could,” said the 27-year-old Team SD Worx-Protime rider.
Le Court-Pienaar's redemption
But it was Kim Le Court-Pienaar who rode to redemption with overall victory at the Lloyds Tour of Britain to become the first African winner one year on from vowing she would never return. The Mauritian rider had crashed out of the tour last year but crossed the line in Royal Leamington Spa with the green jersey secure to earn her first-ever UCI Women’s WorldTour race victory.
Having won stage six at the Tour de France Femmes, Le Court-Pienaar continued that form to write a far happier ending to her pursuits on British roads.
“Now I can finally say that I feel like I have redeemed myself. I came here to finish on a high and that’s exactly what I did,” said the 30-year-old AG Insurance-Soudal rider. “I had a bad experience last year and in 2015 I came here and I came dead last, so I didn’t have a good experience at the Lloyds Tour of Britain. This was my third try and I said if I do a good tour and finish on a high then I won’t come back, but it’s just a saying. We never know and we’ll see what the new year brings.”
Despite numerous WorldTour stage victories, including on stage one in 2025 and up the Great Orme’s tough ascent on stage three this year, Le Court-Pienaar had so far failed to prove her general classification pedigree at that level. “It’s really special,” she added. “People always questioned whether I was a GC [general classification] rider or not and it’s good to know. Of course, it’s on a smaller scale, but the mental state of it is still high and I’m really happy I could achieve that for myself and the team.”
