Aviva Tour of Britain Stage 7: Andre Greipel edges out Elia Viviani in Ipswich

André Greipel of Lotto-Soudal has won the penultimate stage of the Aviva Tour of Britain in Ipswich today, winning by a matter of millimetres from Team Sky’s Elia Viviani, seeking his third win of this year’s race.

On a day when the race was animated by a battle for the Skoda King of the Mountains jersey between Madison-Genesis and ONE Pro Cycling, MTN-Qhubeka’s Edvald Boasson Hagen retains the overall lead.

That tussle for the green and white jersey began early, with the first categorised climb – like the other two, more of an uphill drag – coming 33.2 kilometres into the 227.1 kilometres stage from Fakenham.

Pete Williams of ONE Pro Cycling, on 32 points, led the classification by 3 points this morning, while two Madison-Genesis rider, Mark McNally and Tom Stewart, had 29 points each.

Stewart got into an early four-man break and had he been able to take the 4 points on offer at the top of the climb, would have been virtual leader of the contest.

But Jonny McEvoy of NFTO beat him to the line, putting Stewart on level points with Williams but behind him on countback.

With ONE Pro Cycling bringing back the escapees, a second breakaway went clear after 57.5 kilometres, comprising Movistar’s Alex Dowsett, Graham Briggs of JLT-Condor, and Great Britain’s Gabriel Cullaigh.

At one point they had a lead of more than 7 minutes but with Lotto-Soudal leading the peloton and looking to set up an opportunity for Greipel at the end of the day, the escape group’s advantage began to tumble.

With a solitary KOM point available at the second climb of the day once the break had gone through, ONE Pro Cycling’s Chris Opie prevented Stewart from moving ahead in that competition.

There were 36.2 kilometres from there to the final KOM sprint of this year’s race, and Madison-Genesis went to the front and gradually started reeling the break in.

A crash as the race took a bizarre along the runway of Wattisham Airfield took two BMC Racing riders out of the race, Floris Geurts and Dylan Teuns.

That incident disrupted the peloton, but once it was back on roads, Madison-Genesis dug in deep to continue to lead the chase of the three riders up front.

With Dowsett falling back, Briggs and Cullaigh tried to stay out but were swept up not long before the KOM point.

There, Stewart picked up 2 points – but frustratingly for the Madison-Genesis rider, Williams, who also leads the YodelDirect sprints contest, got the maximum 4 on offer.

A fast run-in to Ipswich saw Sky and Lotto-Soudal liock horns at the front of the peloton, with Greipel shading Viviani for his fourth career Tour of Britain stage win.