Kim Le Court sealed overall victory in the Tour of Britain Women in Royal Leamington Spa, as Lorena Wiebes took her fourth sprint win in this year’s race and the 11th stage victory of her career. Wiebes has surpassed Mark Cavendish’s career mark of 10 stage wins and now has the most victories of any rider competing in either the men’s or women’s Tour of Britain. Le Court, who won a stage and finished ninth overall in the Tour de France Femmes earlier this month, based her success on a solo victory in Friday’s uphill finish to the Great Orme, overlooking Llandudno.
It was the most significant race victory of the Mauritian rider’s career. This is my first general classification win and it is a first GC win for me in a team. People had questioned if I am a GC rider or not, and it is good to know that the mental state is still quite high and I’m glad I could achieve that for me and the team,” the AG Insurance Soudal rider said.
The 30-year-old has had a chequered past in the British race, but this year proved the strongest of the overall contenders. I think the challenge is not to carry the form [from the Tour de France Femmes] but to carry the recovery process and make sure you are recovering mentally and physically, so you don’t burn out.” If Le Court was the best overall rider, then Wiebes’s four stage wins allied to second place overall – a matter of days after she won two stages in the Tour de France Femmes – were evidence of her status as the fastest sprinter in the Women’s World Tour. She has now worn the yellow jersey in the Tour de France Femmes, won stages in both the Tour and Giro d’Italia, the coveted classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège and has now added the overall title in the Tour of Britain to her résumé.
The final stage was characterised by a resilient three-rider breakaway that built a lead approaching two-and-a-half minutes until the climbs of Sun Rising Hill and Burton Dassett took their toll and the chasing field picked up speed. Sara Martín, of Movistar, British rider Alice Towers and Eva van Agt, teammate to the 2026 Tour de France Femmes winner, Demi Vollering, at FDJ United-Suez, slipped clear with 110km to race and worked well to distance the peloton. However, in a frenzied final 20km, their advantage was steadily eroded as the peloton accelerated on the approach to the Warwickshire spa town.
Even with under 5km remaining the trio still led by half a minute but they were finally reeled in with barely a kilometre to race, as Wiebes once again moved ahead of her peers to claim another success.
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