Boasson Hagen promenades to victory

15.09.2009

Edvald Boasson Hagen sprinted to victory for the second successive day in The Tour of Britain, winning Stage Four to Blackpool after the peloton caught a six man breakaway group in the last few kilometres of the stage.

Hagen’s stage win means he now sits just one second behind Yellow Jersey Kai Reus, who admitted after the stage that he feared the Norwegian rider who will now take the leader’s jersey if he can repeat his Stoke-on-Trent victory on Wednesday.

The sprint outside the Sandcastle on Blackpool Promenade was marred by a crash inside the final few hundred metres that brought several riders down including Ian Wilkinson and Pieter Vanspeybrouck, but at the front it was Boasson Hagen who crossed the line first, heading Chris Sutton and Martin Reimer, with Russell Downing top Briton.

There was action immediately at the peloton reached 0km on the outskirts of Blackpool under clear blue skies, with several riders instigating attacks, which were eventually brought back by the time of the first Sprint of the day at Cockerham.

After 24km of racing a trio of riders went clear and were immediately allowed to build an advantage, with the group comprising Irish champion Nicolas Roche, Federico Canuti and Simon Clarke.

Despite draggy roads and a crosswind as The Tour of Britain encountered the foothills of the Pennines, the escapees continued to draw clear, only having their advantage pegged when Martin Mortensen tried to cross the gap and was reeled back in by the peloton.

Turning south at High Bentham the riders were immediately onto narrow roads heading skywards and up onto the Lancashire Fells.  With the first two climbs of the day, Tatham Fells and Cross of Greet almost blending into one, there was a reaction from the peloton instantly.

Olympic Gold medallist Geraint Thomas, Maxime Monfort and Vladimir Karpets attacked out of the main field and began to fight there way upwards towards the break.  A further reaction came from last year’s Tour of Britain winner Geoffroy Lequatre who bridged across to the trio before the summit.

There was then heartbreak for Thomas who suffered a rear wheel puncture, and with no team car behind him the Welshman had to ride on on a flat tyre for several kilometres before receiving service.  By the crowded top of Cross of Greet the leaders had around a minute and a half on their chasers, with the peloton a further minute back.

An incredibly fast descent into Slaidburn followed, with Clarke doing well to stay upright after being caught out by Roche and a tightening corner.  Instead of flat valley roads it was continual ups and downs that greeted the two groups as they made their way to the packed main climb of the day, Waddington Fell.

Karpets and co were at 45 seconds at the summit, with the peloton at three minutes, but on another fast descent into Waddington the catch was almost made, with the junction made at Great Mitton after 93 kilometres of racing.

Once together the six worked well, but with Garmin chasing exceptionally hard to set up the sprint for Sutton, their chance of making it to the seafront were numbered, with the catch being as much a case of when and not if.

With the gap steadily decreasing the catch was almost made before the race entered Blackpool, but the six riders dug deep to hold off the cavalry, before several of the riders including Monfort and Lequatre tried to jump away to the finish.

Turning right onto the promenade the catch was made with Team Columbia – HTC immediately going to the front to lead out the sprint for Boasson Hagen.  Tony Martin put in a big effort, but when Sutton jumped the Norwegian on his back wheel powered past to take his fifth win from the last nine Tour of Britain stages.

Behind chaos ensued after several riders came together, with the worst injured being Wilkinson and Vanspeybrouck who were taken to hospital post-stage.

Victory for Boasson Hagen closes the gap to Reus to one second, with a further ten riders all within 25 seconds as The Tour reaches it’s halfway point.

Meanwhile Sutton’s second place means the Australian now retakes The Prostate Cancer Charity Points Jersey from Michele Merlo.  Speaking afterwards he praised his Garmin teammates for their work in bringing the break back and setting him up for the sprint.

“Brad Wiggins put a lot of confidence in me, because he said you’ll get over these climbs no worries.  I had a lot of help and support from all the boys today and they were when I needed them, especially coming up towards the end.

“I put Trent Lowe on the front just to ride hard tempo and then Brad just couldn’t help himself and got on the front at about 60 kilometres per hour.  It was pretty much Bradley on his own that closed the gap, but there was Lowe, Tom Peterson and Huub Duyn swopping on and off as well, but Bradley was sitting on the front for five or ten kilometres at a time.  I was yelling at him on the radio to drop back and said ‘Mate you’ve gotta save some for the finish’ and he said ‘I’m not even trying hard, I’m picking my nose’!  He was really good on the finish as well, all the boys from Garmin – Slipstream were incredible today.” 

Although unaffected by the crash, Sutton was certainly aware of it, saying,  “I heard the crash, it happened just behind me actually. 

“At a kilometre to go we got boxed in and were about twenty back and I yelled at Bradley to go and it just opened up on the right hand side and Brad went straight through and took me to the front.  At about 400 metres to go I heard a massive crash right behind me, so it sort of baulked the sprint a little bit.   

“Boasson Hagen was on my wheel and I kept looking and looking because I needed to get the jump on him, but when I went I went to open up he just got the jump on me.  I should have opened up the sprint earlier, but I just left it too late.  Second’s good, but I want another win.”

Compatriot Simon Clarke picked up the Honda Combativity Prize for his role in instigating the day’s break.

“When you go out in the breakaway like that you’ve just got to give it everything to get to the finish line ahead of the group.  Being such a hard day today I thought if there was any day when they might just be too tired to pull us back it might be today.  I thought if we can just do everything we can together we might have a chance.  Really we were so close to pulling it off as it was.

“The three guys who caught us were good to start with, but because they’d ridden so hard to catch us in the last twenty kilometres they started to get a bit tired, so the original three of us started pulling a little bit hard, but everyone worked well together.”

Clarke also confirmed that he and his companions had waited for Karpets, Lequatre and Monfort.

“We just waited for them after the final climb, because we’d been away since the start so didn’t want them to catch us before the last climb as they were obviously a little bit fresher and might ride away. 

“It was such a hard day and the three that broke away were three really strong guys at a time in the stage when only the really strong guys could break away.  I didn’t know who was coming across until they reached us, but I knew that whoever it was would be strong, because you can’t break away on the hills like today unless you’re going strong.”

A quiet day for breakaway specialist Thomas De Gendt was unusual, but as usual the young Belgian was still on the post-race podium to collect both the Sprints and King of the Mountains jerseys.

Looking ahead to Stage Five, which circles Stoke-on-Trent and the Staffordshire Moorlands, British Champion Kristian House said, “People are starting to want to race and there are some people that don’t want to race.  Some people just want to take it easy and race hard at the end and have it be a bunch kick but I’m sure it’ll start breaking up.  Tomorrow’s a hard day as well, the next three days are pretty hard so I’m sure a split will happen.  It’s just a question of making sure you’re in it.”

Stage Five takes place over the same roads as The Prostate Cancer Charity Tour Ride two weeks ago, with Wednesday being a chance to see the professionals tackling those roads.  Don’t forget there’s still a chance to sign up for The Prostate Cancer Charity London Ride, which takes place on Saturday before the final stage of The Tour of Britain.  For more details visit www.unitebycycling.org.uk

For full results of Stage Four, please visit the results section of tourofbritain.co.uk