Stephen Williams surges to Tour of Britain stage victory in Redcar

Welsh rider Stephen Williams outgunned Julian Alaphilippe to win the second stage of the Tour of Britain in Redcar.

Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) produced an impressive sprint to move past the former two-time world champion Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) in the closing stages before holding his hands aloft at the finish.

British duo Oscar Onley (Team DSM-Firmenich) and Joseph Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) finished third and fourth respectively following the 152.1 kilometre stage that started in Darlington.

Top spot

The 28-year-old Williams’ win takes him to the top of the overall standings – six seconds clear of Onley – with Alaphilippe in third, 16secs back. Stage-one winner Paul Magnier dropped to ninth.

“It’s really good to get my hands in the air,” Williams said.

“It was a really tough day out, especially the last hour, hour and a half when the race opened up. I think the way we rode, we rode in such a way that we always had numbers everywhere and we showed that in the final so I’m over the moon to get my hands in the air in the UK.”

“The aim now is to try and hold onto the jersey, it’s not the easiest job in the world. It takes a lot of things going right and a strong team, we have the strong team so hopefully everything goes right on the road and we’ll see what happens the next few days.”

The third of six stages runs between Sheffield and Barnsley on Thursday. The Tour concludes in Felixstowe on Sunday.