Dutch cyclist wins Borders stage of 2022 Tour of Britain by 1,000th of second

The 27-year-old, riding for his homeland’s Team DSM, timed both his sprint and bike throw to perfection, denying West Midlands-born Stewart, 22, by just a thousandth of a second.

Corbin Strong, representing Israel’s Premier Tech, placed third to extend his lead at the top of the standings and keep hold of the leader’s jersey for another day. The New Zealand rider now leads by eight seconds from Stewart, with Omar Fraile, of Manchester’s Ineos Grenadiers, on the same time.

Speaking after pulling on the red leader’s jersey for the second day running, Strong, 22, said: “I’m confident as I am sprinting well at the moment.

“I was there or thereabouts but there were some fast guys still there at the finish, though, so third was the best I could do today.

“I’m really happy again, and hopefully it continues.

“It’s a really nice and pretty humbling experience actually, having some guys that I’ve grown up watching, like Michal Kwiatkowski and Riche Porte, congratulate me. It’s a really cool feeling as a young neo-pro being recognised by guys like that. It was a nice day for me.”

Looking ahead, Invercargill-born Strong added: “It’s going to be really interesting.

“The Tour of Britain is one of those races that, with weather and the unknown nature of the roads, any day it can split to pieces, so it’s really hard to tell.

“I’m in a really privileged situation to have guys like Reto Hollenstein, Alex Dowsett and Mason Hollyman to defend the lead and then obviously the experience of Michael Woods and Dylan Teuns as some cards to play as well.”

“It was obviously a nice day for me, but it was a pretty hard day,” said Bol.

“It was not an easy stage, and when the final kicked off, the first two climbs were on the tail-wind sectors, and that was actually really hard.

“I was on the limit of dropping and giving up. I kept fighting and then on the headwind it was a bit easier to stay in the bunch, and then over the top of the last climb, my team-mates found me and put me in the best position.

“From there, it was just the last 200 metres all out, fighting through the cramps and throwing the bike.”

Stewart’s second-placed finish was his best performance in his home tour, coming a day after finishing just outside the top ten at Glenshee in the Highlands.

“We can be happy with the work we did,” he said. “Obviously it is disappointing to come away with second, but the lads did a really good job and we will take it from here.

“We had a good day yesterday and a really good day today, and there are still plenty more opportunities to come

“We had a plan going into the day with the boys and we executed it really well. We knew where we had to be over those last few climbs.

“We knew it was an uphill sprint with a slight headwind and really I wanted to come from behind but we found ourselves in the front.

“I was pretty confident in my long sprint – I’ve always been pretty good over a long distance – but in the end, the finish was about five metres too far.”

Highlights of stage two through the Borders can be seen on ITV4 at 10pm tonight and will be available on demand for 30 days via the ITV Hub.

The AJ Bell-sponsored tour of Britain resumes in north-east England tomorrow, September 6, going from Durham to Sunderland and concludes on Sunday, September 11.

Today’s 109-mile stage started in Hawick’s North Bridge Street at 11am, going via Kelso and Morebattle en route for Duns.

Bol’s winning time was four hours eight minutes and 35 seconds.