Chris Anker Sørensen finished as best-placed Tinkoff-Saxo rider on stage 5 of Tour of Britain after a 7.5km summit finish. The Dane came in with a small main group, 18 seconds off stage winner Wout Poels. Sørensen now sits 10th in the GC, while Tinkoff-Saxo aims to improve that position on Friday’s even tougher stage.

“Chris Anker did a very good ride today. He said before the race that he felt strong after his altitude action in Colorado and he showed that today”, assesses Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Nicki Sørensen after the race.

Stage 5 saw an early breakaway escape with Michael Mørkøv as one of the main protagonists. Going into the final climb, however, the group had been caught and several attacks were initiated from the bottom.

“Michael got the chance to go for the breakaway. In fact, they had seven minutes at some point but Movistar and Sky knew that they couldn’t allow a rider of Michael’s caliber to build too big of an advantage. As we hit the first section of the final climb, the attacks started coming and Chris Anker was very active. Kiserlovski just lacked the last power and came in 17 seconds later than Chris. Overall, I’m happy with the effort from the team today. Juraj Sagan and Nikolay Trusov are getting up to speed, Antwan Tolhoek, our young stagiaire, has raced in a very dedicated fashion although he does feel that the level is high”, adds Nicki Sørensen.

Stage 5 saw Wout Poels take the win after 166.4km of racing from Prudhoe to the top of Hartside Fell. Chris Anker’s 8th place sends him into the GC top ten, while Nicki Sørensen underlines that the team plans on furthering that position.

“Chris has the same time in the GC as number six, right now he is 10th and the podium is 8 seconds away. So we definitely aim to improve his position and tomorrow is the last day for doing so before a sprinter’s stage and the final city criterium in London. We don’t have that much to lose and we know that Chris is always willing to fight”, finishes Nicki Sørensen to the Tinkoff Saxo website.