Nic Dlamini held on to secure the King of the Mountains category in the penultimate stage of the Tour of Britain following yet another exciting day of racing on Saturday. It was, again, a strong team performance by Team Dimension Data as Scott Davies also finished the day as the best British rider following the stage finish in Mansfield.

The stage was won by Ian Stannard (Team Sky) who, after being in the break for over 200km, produced an excellent final effort to see off Nils Politt (Katusha) with Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani) in third.

Earlier on, Dlamini had gone into the stage with a small lead of six points in the KoM category but the team ensured that he was in position to cover any moves from his nearest rivals. That capped off an excellent team effort throughout the race as the jersey stayed within the team right from the start. Dlamini, earlier this year, also won the King of the Mountain jersey at the Tour Down Under.

With the three KoM opportunities within the first 70km of the day’s stage, the longest of the race at 215km, the team’s early focus was to seal that competition, which it duly did.

…we played that one well tactically and Nic secured that win…

“Today was the longest day of the tour so far and we just had to be sure of the KOM jersey, we played that one well tactically and Nic secured that win which we did, which was great,” said Davies. “It was quite a long day and obviously the weather wasn’t that great. There was quite a strong break up the road there and Quick-Step Floors let the break go to the finish and I’ve retained my 12th place on GC and remain best British rider.”

The team, under the leadership of Mark Renshaw, then reset it sights to ensure the position of Best British rider remained with Scott Davies, who took home his third tankard of beer home courtesy of the sponsors.

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