The Jumbo-Visma rider completed second in Caerphilly, 11 seconds behind stage winner Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers), who at one level seemed set to wrestle victory away from him at the dying.
Having beforehand claimed overall victory within the race in 2021, van Aert joins Edvald Boasson Hagen (2009 and 2015) and Lars Boom (2011 and 2017) as a two-time Tour of Britain champion.
The Belgian received the race by three seconds over Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X), Damien Howson (Q36.5), and Magnus Sheffield (INEOS ).
“It feels great,” mentioned van Aert. “We’ve had such a tremendous week as a crew, beginning off with 5 stage wins in a row, which is fairly unimaginable. From then on there was lots of stress on us on this race, however we managed to regulate each stage principally. So I’m tremendous proud, particularly to complete off that teamwork.
“It was a super tough stage and, with the course this year, the weekend was really decisive. Se went all in for the GC. Today the climbs were a bit longer, which is tricky for me especially compared with riders like [Carlos] Rodriguez and [Stevie] Williams, who are 20kg lighter than me. I had to stay calm and trust my team-mates. I really had to think a lot in that final.”
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