Cyclingnews

September 18, Stage 7: Hatherleigh - Yeovil 159.7km

Swift's sweet victory in Somerset

By:

Gerry McManus

Published:

September 18, 2009, 15:13,

Updated:

September 19, 2009, 10:29

First pro victory for Brit, Boasson Hagen picks up a few more seconds toward his lead

Photos

Ben Swift (Team Katusha) pulled off his first professional career victory when he won the bunch sprint in Yeovil on Friday. The Yorkshireman has achieved every place in the top ten this year except seventh and first. Today he became the first Britain to win a stage of the Tour of Britain since Paul Manning won the final stage in Glasgow two years ago.

"This was a really special win for me," said Swift. "I came into the race with aims for the general classification, but I had a bit of bad luck on the second, third and fourth stages. Then yesterday, I had a good long hard day out in the break, but after I knew the GC was out of reach, I was going for the stage wins.

"Pozzato was going to try to get away over the last climb and if he didn't get away, he was going to look after me at the finish. Steve Cummings (Barloworld) did a good job for Geraint Thomas on the front and then Pozzato took over for me. There was a bit of a crash coming into the first corner, but we got round it pretty quickly and opened up a gap. We went into the second corner a little too quick and we both skidded down the barriers. However, we opened up a bigger gap, and I came round Pozzato with 150m to go. He held on for second which made it a bit more special."

"To pull it off in Britain is great," said the rider from Rotherham in Yorkshire: "My legs were sore today and I could feel it on the climbs. It was a hard day, all day with the terrain with twists and turns. The team has ridden for me quite a few times now and this is the first time I have managed to finish it off."

The tough terrain was not enough to break Columbia-HTC's tight control over the race despite numerous attempts by other teams to go distance themselves from Columbia-HTC's race leader Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Filippo Pozzato gave his teammate the perfect lead out in a tricky finish with two tight turns within the last 200m and the Italian champion held onto second place ahead of race leader Boasson Hagen, who will almost certainly be crowned the Tour of Britain race winner in London tomorrow barring accidents in the two-hour criterium finale.

The attacking action had started early with Alto Galdos (Eustakel-Euskadi) and Filippo Salvini (CSF Navigare) the first to gain a clear lead before the first climb of the day at Cadbury Hill. Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) lead a seven-man group that included teammates Steve Cummings and Geraint Thomas but also two Columbia-HTC riders.

The seven chasers made it over to the two leaders but only before AG2R, Cervelo & Vacansoleil brought the bunch up to make it gruppo compatto again. Kristian House (Rapha Condor) was the next to make his move with Joker Bianchi's Stian Remme. The two leaders rapidly blasted their way into a five-minute lead using the twisty lanes, but the duo knew they would be struggling into a headwind when the turned for Yeovil. They had a tailwind on the way out of Honiton and the lead was starting to come down when they climbed their way out of town with Columbia-HTC on the front of the bunch.

The gap was only just over two minutes at Tytherleigh after three and quarter hours of racing. Garmin put in an attack from the bunch at Cricket St Thomas with young Tom Peterson from Seattle moving clear in an attempt to join the leaders. Peterson was brought back but Bart Vanheule (TopSport - Vlaanderen) made it across to make it three riders with a lead of around 10 seconds but House was starting to suffer and their impressive pace faded. So it was altogether in the final 10km with Barloworld leading the peloton. Geraint Thomas attacked on the final climb with only 5km to go but no one was going to be let go in this late stage.

There was a crash in the final kilometre, but Swift, Boasson Hagen and Pozzato were well clear, and Swift came off the Italian's wheel to taste victory for the first time in his pro career.

Thomas De Gendt (TopSport - Vlaanderen) added the sprints jersey to the mountains jersey he won yesterday.

Kai Reus (Rabobank) sits second overall at 23 seconds. Martin Reimer (Cervelo) is third at 25 seconds, and Chris Sutton (Garmin Slipstream) fourth at 28 seconds. The overall victory will almost surely go to Boasson Hagen.

"It was hard to control things today," said Boasson Hagen. "It kept splitting and coming back together. It was hard to control things. We didn't expect Katusha to help to bring back the break with the Barloworld riders in it, but it was good. I also didn't expect the final climb to be so steep and there were a lot of attacks over the top. Katusha was strong in the sprint, and they were so far in front out of the last corner. It was not possible to catch them. I am just happy to keep the yellow jersey."

Rapha Condor had planned to do a good ride in the stage, and Kristian House had got close to breaking the domination of Columbia-HTC when he escaped with Stian Remme (Joker Bianchi). "We rode the whole stage about two weeks ago," said House: "I didn't really expect the break to get away. The way the race had been going everyone wants to be in a break, so I expected people to continue attacking but I got a message on the radio pretty quick saying they'd shut it down and Columbia was happy with two guys away because they could control that.

"So we knew we were going to get a gap, the questions were how big of a gap and how long we could hold on to it? It definitely started hurting with about 30k to go. The gap was coming down pretty quickly then."

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