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Wiggins: Boasson Hagen could dominate next decade

published 14 January 2010

Calls young Norwegian the most talented rider in the peloton

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Edvald Boasson Hagen came over from the Columbia-HTC team with Canadian Michael Barry (Image credit: Gerry McManus/www.splitsecondimages.co.uk)

Bradley Wiggins has seen the future for Team Sky, and it is Edvald Boasson Hagen, who he considers “the most talented rider” in the peloton. The young Norwegian has the potential to become the most dominant rider of the next decade, Wiggins said.

Boasson Hagen to make Tour debut

"Everyone knows that Edvald is probably the most talented rider in the field right now. He is able to do exactly as he wants, " Wiggins told the Norwegian website VG Nett.

"He is the team's future, and if he stays here, he can win all the races, he will. He will be the big name in cycling for the next ten years. It's almost scary to think what he can achieve in ten years, until he is 32 years old."

Boasson Hagen may not actually win everything, though. Wiggins questions whether the 22-year-old will ever stand atop the final podium at the Tour de France. “Edvald can get in amongst the top five in the classification. "He doesn't climb well enough to win, but he climbs well enough to be near the top."

The young Norwegian rode for Team Columbia in 2008 and 2009. According to Wiggins, “He has been with one of the best teams in the world in the last two years, and now he is in an even better team. He has the right people around him.”

Wiggins, 29, finished fourth last year in the Tour de France for Garmin-Slipstream. Boasson Hagen had numerous wins in the season, including Gent-Wevelgem, a stage in the Giro d'Italia, and the overall victories in the Eneco Tour of Benelux and the Tour of Britain.