Wout Van Aert claims Tour of Britain victory

Belgian Wout van Aert raced to victory in the Tour of Britain on Sunday while Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez made a strong charge to win the hilly eighth and final stage in Wales.

Norway's Tobias Halland Johannessen of Uno-X was three seconds behind Van Aert in second, while Australian Damien Howson (Q36.5), with the same time, was third.

Ireland's Ryan Mullen finished 47th overall in the general classification, 13:35 off the lead.

Van Aert had begun the final day with a slender three-second lead after narrowly failing to win Saturday's seventh stage.

Rodriguez, of Ineos Grenadiers, started the stage 39 seconds down before attacking on the mountain climb of Bryn Du some 50 kilometres from the finish and led the rest of the way.

The 166.8-km stage was temporarily neutralised at the 83-km mark due to a motor vehicle collision on the course that was unrelated to the race.

Stage eight travelled from picturesque Margam Country Park to the finish line in the shadows of Caerphilly Castle in South Wales, with a gruelling double ascent of Caerphilly Mountain.