Steve Cummings wins 2016 Tour of Britain as Caleb Ewan wins stage eight

Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) won the final bunch sprint of the Tour of Britain in London. Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) finished off a fine week of racing to take home the overall victory.

Australian Caleb Ewan attacked out of the peleton on beating champion Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) for second and Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal) in third.

Cummings carried a 26 second advantage over Rohan Dennis (BMC) into the final stage, but that looked unlikely to be challenged with only 25 seconds worth of time bonuses available at the intermediate sprints along a mainly flat 100 kilometer route around central London.

The 16 laps of the circuit were animated by the early breakaway group containing Jasper Bovenhuis (AnPost Chain Reaction), Taylor Phinney (BMC), Tom Stewart (Madison Genesis) and Gabriel Cullaigh (GB).

From there, the quartet went on to establish a minor advantage of around 45 seconds over the peloton.

The group allowed Bovenhuis to collect the remaining intermediate points he needed to secure the title in the sprint classification.

Despite a couple of last ditched attacks from Phinney and Steward, the breakaway group was brought to a close during the last 12 kilometers.

Once the peloton was back together, Lotto-Soudal looked to be lining up their man André Greipel to contest the sprint, but his teammate Jens Debusschere was allowed to attack off the front during the closing kilometer.

At one point, it looked as though Debusschere might be able to hold out, until Danny van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo) made a huge effort to bridge his way across, as did the rest of the peloton eventually.

Shortly thereafter, Ewan launched his attack along the right hand side of the road away from the main bunch, and got well ahead of the likes of Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) before they could respond.

From there, the young Australian easily made his way across the line to seize the stage victory.

Meanwhile, Cummings finished just behind the lead group, to secure the overall race title, marking only the second British rider to win the race since Bradley Wiggins in 2013.

Tour of Britain Stage 8 Top 10

1 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange 2:09:24
2 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
3 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal
4 Boy Van Poppel (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
5 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
6 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
7 Daniel Mclay (GBr) Fortuneo - Vital Concept
8 Steele Von Hoff (Aus) ONE Pro Cycling
9 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF
10 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani CSF

Tour of Britain Final General Classification Top 10

1 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data 32:30:45
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:26
3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:00:38
4 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:01:02
5 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:21
6 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:01:26
7 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:01:48
8 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:52
9 Julien Vermote (Bel) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:02:12
10 Jacopo Mosca (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:32