Ben Perry takes race lead at Tour of Britain after stage three result amended

Ben Perry has been declared the new race leader of the Tour of Britain after stage three's result was amended to count the time between the day's break and the main peloton.

As a result, a British Continental team, Wiv SunGod, has taken the leader's jersey for the first time at the home race.

This was a twist to the tale of stage three of the race. Kamiel Bonneu (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) won the day in Sunderland in the rain, as part of a break that survived all day and then Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) was awarded the red jersey for the third consecutive day.

However, after deliberation, and according to regulation 2.3.040, Bonneu and Perry were judged to have finished seven seconds ahead of the peloton. With bonus seconds added into account, Perry indeed claimed the leader's jersey.

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke wore the leader's jersey at the 2012 Tour of Britain while riding for Endura Racing, a British Conti team, and indeed won that race, but that result was stripped after anomalies were found in his biological passport data.

It means Wiv SunGod can celebrate being the first official home team to hold the leader's jersey at the tour of Britain.

The news of Perry's promotion came hours after stage three had ended, after deliberation by the UCI commissaires.

In a communique, the Tour of Britain organisers said: "The Organisation wishes to thank all teams for their cooperation on todays stage under challenging conditions and the confusion over the stage result."

A statement from the UCI's chief commissaire read: "Following a review of the implementation protocol of the calculation of time gaps expected to finish in bunch sprints, the stage three result has been amended.

"Regulation 2.3.040, as amended by the derogation, applies: a sole rider (or small group of riders) finishes ahead followed by the peloton in a bunch sprint.

"The rule applies to the main peloton only in the following manner:

"As a result, Wiv SunGod rider Benjamin Perry is the AJ Bell Tour of Britain race leader after stage three."

The Canadian rider will therefore wear the red jersey on stage four from Redcar on Wednesday morning. It is the first time he has led an elite professional race, although he did lead the Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay, a 2.2 event, in 2015. This is his first year with the Wiv SunGod team.

Perry's teammate Jake Scott also leads the King of the Mountains classification, meaning it has been a fruitful opening to the race for the squad.