Great Britain’s Stevie Williams claims Tour of Britain victory

Great Britain’s Stevie Williams won the 2024 Tour of Britain, while Matevz Govekar claimed victory in the race’s sixth and final stage.

Welsh rider Williams, 28, who won stages two and three, secured victory in 21 hours 25 minutes 14 seconds, with fellow Briton Oscar Onley 16 seconds behind him in second place.

The sixth stage was a 158.4km ride from Lowestoft to Felixstowe and ended with a thrilling climax, with Slovenia’s Govekar, of Bahrain Victorious, winning a sprint finish ahead of Denmark’s Rasmus Pedersen and Great Britain’s Ben Swift.

“It’s been a good week and we managed to take everything out of a stage race – a couple of stages and the GC so I’m really happy and proud to have this race,” said Williams.

“I’m proud of how the boys rode all week, they were fantastic. It’s me standing on the podium and winning it but it was definitely a team effort.

“After the Olympics, it was definitely a target of mine to get back into racing and I knew I was coming here in decent form.

“Luckily, I had the legs to show it and pull it off – but at the end of the day everything has to go right and everything did go right so I’m really happy.”

Paul Magnier was aiming to equal the record of winning four individual stages in the same Tour of Britain competition but the Frenchman, along with Briton Tom Pidcock, had to abandon the final stage because of a crash with about 35km to go.