Matthew Teggart increases sprints lead at Tour of Britain as Jordi Meeus takes stage five

Belgium's Jordi Meeus emerged victorious from a bunch sprint in Mansfield to win stage five of the Tour of Britain.

The BORA–hansgrohe rider edged out Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB), while Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) finished third.

It moved Olympic gold medallist Pidcock closer to race leader Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) in the overall standings, three seconds behind the stage four-winning Spaniard who ended the afternoon in 21st.

Pidcock’s compatriot Sam Watson took fourth place on an afternoon that saw a four-man breakaway cut down to two with 45km remaining, then caught by the peloton with 9.2km to go.

A strange twist saw a large number of riders make a wrong turn around a junction in the final kilometre to rule themselves out and set up the dramatic finish.

Down native Matthew Teggart (Wiv SunGod) increased his lead in the sprints jersey to 16 points over nearest challengers Benjamin Perry and Mathijs Paasschens after earning six points in intermediate sprints today.

He is also fourth in the King of the Mountains race after picking up four further points.

Teggart's team-mate and compatriot Rory Townsend was 75th today and is 88th overall.

Stage six (of eight) will see the riders race 170.9km from Tewkesbury to Gloucester, the first time the county has hosted the Tour for a full day.