• Italian triumphs after sprint finish in Kelso• Mitchelton-Scott team ‘worked so hard for that’, he says
As the overall Tour of
Britain contenders began to show their hands in the Scottish Border hills, the stage one winner, Dylan Groenewegen of the Netherlands, was caught on the wrong side of a split in the peloton and was left behind, with the stage victory in Kelso going to the former European champion Matteo Trentin, who also snaffled the race leader’s green jersey.
The action came on a brace of ascents before and after the town of Melrose, with around 30 kilometres remaining. On the draggy climb of Scott’s View, an attack from the big Dutch favourite Mathieu van der Poel strung out the bunch, which had been led steadily until that point by Groenewegen’s Jumbo-Visma team as they kept an early three-rider escape in check.