06 May 2018

Big day out for Doull

Related riders

Owain Doull

Owain Doull pushed hard in the breakaway on a punishing but spectacular final day of racing at the Tour de Yorkshire.

Stage four saw a peloton stretched to breaking point, with Doull forging clear early out of Hebden Bridge in a bid to enliven the race.

The Welshman was part of a large escape group that, despite opening out a gap on the bunch behind, never hit its stride on the run to Leeds.

Ahead of Otley Chevin Doull jumped clear alongside Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept), but as attacks launched behind he was eventually swept up by the battle for the blue jersey.

With overnight leader Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) distanced it was BMC Racing who seized control, with Greg Van Avermaet sealing the overall victory by nine seconds over Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias). In the battle for the stage win there was no stopping Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis), with the Frenchman among the very first to attack and sealing a magnificent solo victory.

Dylan van Baarle continued to lead the Team Sky charge and came home 19th on the day, elevating the Dutchman to 13th overall.

Owain Doull

It was nice to be at the front of the race, especially on a day like this with all the crowds and such nice weather – it was a really nice day out.

After the stage Doull described his day. He told ITV4: “As a team we haven’t had a great week to be honest, with a couple of crashes setting us back.

“I didn’t have a great day on stage two but I knew I was still going alright and I wanted to get stuck in today and actually have an impact on the race. Obviously I got into that big move - I think it was a little bit too big though, with a lot of guys there who weren’t really keen to commit. I tried a few times to break the group down as small as possible but that was pretty hard.

“But it was nice to be at the front of the race, especially on a day like this with all the crowds and such nice weather – it was a really nice day out actually.

On his late move heading into Otley, Doull added: “When I went away from the break with Coquard and we started going up to the Chevin out of Otley – I didn’t actually know what the gap was, and I was thinking maybe if I get over that before the main guys hit me, then maybe I could be in the mix. In the end the Cofidis rider won which is unbelievable considering he was away from Hebden Bridge and then he was solo for the last 100km. I don’t think anyone could have beaten that guy today!”

Overall standings:

1. Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) 16:38:00
2. Eduard Prades (Euskadi - Murias) +9"
3. Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) +14”
4. Robert Kiserlovski (Team Katusha-Alpecin) +19"
5. Michael Storer (Team Sunweb) s.t.
13. Dylan van Baarle (Team Sky) +1:09"