'It was mint' – Fearless, young and having fun, meet the British riders who created havoc at the Tour of Britain Men

The Tour of Britain Men might struggle to compete in terms of prestige with the Vuelta a España, which takes place concurrently, but something sensational was happening here in the UK last week, due to the dynamic of the domestic tour. It was something you’ll never see at a Grand Tour. And it bodes well for British cycling.

In its current format, as a 2.Pro race, the Tour of Britain pits elite WorldTour teams not just against Continental outfits, but also an ensemble of GB athletes. This national team is typically a dynamic squad of youthful riders who – unrestrained by traditional team responsibilities, and looking to catch the attention of team bosses – often ride with fearless freedom, acting like disruptive cats amongst a bunch of pro racing pigeons.

And that’s exactly what happened this week, with 20-year-old Elliot Rowe and 21-year-old Ben Wiggins in particular showing prodigious talent and tenacity to go toe-to-toe with seasoned top riders such as Filippo Ganna (Netcompany-Ineos) and green-jersey-winning Tim Wellens of UAE Team Emirates XRG.

On the final stage of the tour, both riders threw caution to the crosswind and set up an exciting and unpredictable end to the race.

Almost as soon as the peloton left Earlston in the Scottish Borders, Wiggins was instrumental in instigating an audacious early break that completely confounded everyone’s expectations of how the day would unfold.

The five who escaped were eventually caught, and most were dropped, but Wiggins dug deep and stayed in the lead pack for the entirety of the 156km stage, keeping pace with top riders.

Inside the last 10km he launched a fresh attack that had commentators speculating about a stage win. It wasn’t to be, Nils Politt ultimately outgunned him, but the gutsy performance saw Wiggins finish sixth on the day, elevating him to tenth in the final general classification, and earned him the stage combativity award.

Even with his pedigree, Wiggins knew he’d been part of something special, riding with illustrious company.

"It was super cool,” he enthused when Cycling Weekly spoke to him immediately afterwards. “I mean, these guys… like they've won Grand Tour stages – a lot of them have just come out of the tour team with Tadej [Pogacar]. I did have a moment when the group formed… I was like,’ this is wickedness’.

“I wasn't expecting that. It was mint. I'm currently without a job for next year as well. So hopefully that helps my case.

“I know I have the engine to compete with the best – I do genuinely feel that. But when those boys are going flat-out, it's impressive. It was pretty hard to hang on to them at times. I just had to dig in.

“I knew this was going to be my day in some form. It's definitely the biggest result of my career so far."

Meanwhile, Rowe, who usually rides for Visma-Lease a Bike Development team, finished in sixth place overall in the GC and took home the white best young rider’s jersey, which he’d been wearing all week.

It was an exceptional start-to-finish performance from the prodigiously talented young Scot, who also showed impressive determination on home soil during the final day, at one point launching a solo attack to try and bridge across to the lead group.

“The Lincoln day gave me quite a lot of confidence,” Elliot Rowe told us. “I knew I could be there. I was on the limit, but I was there. I'm riding for the national team. I'm not getting looked at by the other guys, so I had zero pressure. “I thought, ‘why not just race, race freely, give it a go?’ I love racing my bike.”

The young riders’ enjoyment of the event was writ large on their faces. And with Wiggins and Rowe in their ranks, GB punched well above their weight during this tour, finishing fourth in the team standings, ahead of several WorldTour teams.

“It's really important, because obviously everyone wants to make the next step up to become pro.” said Rowe. “So, getting a chance to race these guys and learn from them. you know, even like racing against them, you learn things that they're doing.

"We did really well this week as a national team in this field, I think we held our own pretty well. I think we proved that we could mix it in the finals on any day. And that was nice to see. And yeah, we came together really well as a group of lads, and we just had fun every day.”