Remco Evenepoel denies British challengers to win stage 5 of Tour of Britain on the Tumble

Remco Evenepoel put in an impressive burst of speed on top of the Tumble to win the queen stage of the 2025 Tour of Britain Men.

The Soudal Quick-Step leader defied several attacks in the closing stages and was fastest to the line in the final sprint, winning the stage ahead of Thomas Gloag (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL).

Groupama-FDJ's Romain Grégoire, who won the previous stage in Burton Dassetr Country Park, finished fifth on the same time as Evenepoel to retain his lead in the race. Evenepoel moves up to second overall, two seconds behind the Frenchman with one final showdown to come to decide the race in Cardiff on stage 6.

Onley, Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) put in a dangerous attack in the closing stages of the Tumble, but their co-operation broke down as they entered for final kilometre. Evenepoel controlled the final climb into the headwind to perfection, reeling in the attackers with the help of team-mate Ilan van Wilder before launching a terrific early sprint.

"The last 3k, the wind was blowing quite hard in the face and I quickly realised that we had to wait for the sprint, that it was going to be difficult to get away," Evenepoel said after the race.

"You could also see that when Sivakov and Only and [Eulalio] went off, that they kind of blew back. Ilan also did a great job to bring the guys back and then it was up to me...I just focused on my sprint."

Now, Evenepoel is motivated to win the race with another tough stage to come on the final day into Cardiff.

"To go out with a GC win, it would be a really good confidence boost for myself after a long period out of competition," he said. "We're just going to give it a last big shot tomorrow and then we'll see how it finishes."

how it happened

Stage 5 had been billed as the hardest of the week at this year’s Tour of Britain Men, with two ascents of the famous Tumble climb preceded by three other categorised hills.

Plenty of riders were keen to feature in the day’s early breakaway, including Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers, riding his penultimate race day as a professional on his home roads.

The fight lasted for around 30km, but Thomas failed to make the break as nine riders made it clear. They included another welshman, Finlay Tarling (Israel-Premier Tech), alongside others including KOM leader Victor Vercouillie (Flanders Baloise), Frederik Frison (Q36.5) and Noa Isidore (Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale).

Vercouillie picked up the early KOM points to extend his lead in that competition as the break’s advantage peaked at two-and-a-half minutes over the first climbs before the first ascent of the Tumble.

Evenepoel made a speculative move the first time up the 5.5km climb with 50km left in the stage but was quickly closed down, saying afterwards that he noted the strength of the headwind. The breakaway splintered on the climb before being entirely reeled in on the descent.

British Champion Sam Watson led onto the bottom of the final climb in support of his Ineos Grenadiers team-mates Thymen Arensman and AJ August before Lucas Hamilton took over, stringing out the bunch through the forest on the early slopes.

The group was soon whittled down to around 20 riders with 3km of the climb left as Arensman made the first attack. Evenepoel latched-on to Arensman and then Eulalio made the next move, followed by Onley and Evenepoel once more. Others struggled back as Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) was dropped.

August accelerated multiple times, but nothing was sticking at this point as the climb reached it steepest pitches, with 15 riders all together and Evenepoel keeping order on the front as he calculated his energy usage into the headwind.

Sivakov launched a serious move with less than 2km to go and was followed by Onley, with Eulalio making his way over afterwards. Evenepoel then made a move to try to close, but didn’t want to do all the work himself as the collaboration also started to break down in front into the wind. Van Wilder got on the front of the chase group to bring the leading trio back at the flamme rouge.

Van Wilder continued to drive the pace towards the finish before August made yet another unsuccessful move. Evenepoel launched the sprint first and stayed strong to the line, fending off Gloag and Onley to take his first stage win of the race.

Gregoire finished in fifth on the same time as Evenepoel to keep the leader’s jersey with a two-second lead heading into the final day.

Results

Tour of Britain stage five: Pontypool > The Tumble (138.4km)

1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep, in 3:07:56
2. Thomas Gloag (GBr) Visma-Lease a Bike
3. Oscar Onley (GBr) Picnic-PostNL
4. Afonso Eulálio (Por) Bahrain Victorious
5. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama FDJ
6. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Lidl-Trek
7. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling
8. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
9. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious, all same time
10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +4s

General Classification after stage five

1. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama FDJ, in 17:03:04
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep, +2s
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, +4s
4. Oscar Onley (GBr) Picnic-PostNL, +8s
5. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +12s
6. Afonso Eulálio (Por) Bahrain Victorious, +12s
7. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +12s
8. Ilan van Wilder (Bel) Soudal-QuickStep, +16s
9. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain Victorious, +17s
10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +21