Boasson Hagen wins Eneco stage, holds overall lead

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Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) won stage six of the Eneco Tour today in Roermond, Netherlands, and maintained his general classification lead. He sprinted to a victory ahead of Matthew Goss (Saxo Bank) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream).

Norwegian Boasson Hagen leads the overall classification by 21 seconds over American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) and 25 seconds over Denmark's Lars Bak (Saxo Bank). The seven-day stage race ends tomorrow with a 13.1-kilometre time trial in Amersfoort.

"It is good to lead the race heading into tomorrow," said Boasson Hagen. "I am not a favourite, but I have a good advantage. I hope I can win tomorrow. I have never won a stage race in my life."

Today's stage traveled 163.3 kilometres from Genk, Belgium, to the Netherlands' Roermond. Six riders did not start the stage including Tom Boonen (Quick Step), Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil), Mickaël Chérel, Timothy Gudsell and Wesley Sulzberger (Française des Jeux).

Dutchmen Rick Flens (Rabobank) and Huub Duyn (Garmin-Slipstream), and Russian Alexander Serov (Katusha) led the race for much of the day. The trio's escape ended with six kilometres to race.

The trio formed the escape group 34 kilometres into the race. It had 1:15 over the main group of Boasson Hagen with 50 kilometres to go.

The trio's time advantage was down to 1:04 20 kilometres later, with Milram and Lampre at the front of the group.

France's Mathieu Drujon (Caisse d'Epargne) crashed on part of a curb with 23 kilometres to go. He re-joined the race after a bike change.

The peloton, led by Quick Step and Lampre, had the trio at 30 seconds with 12 kilometres remaining. Once it caught the trio, Lampre and Liquigas were prominent at the front. Liquigas looked the strongest as it was setting up its sprinter Francesco Chicchi.

Chicchi had two men leading for the start of the final kilometre. Columbia moved forward to protect the lead of Boasson Hagen and prepare for the sprint. He started early, near 300 metres out, after a right hand turn.

Farrar regained ground but not enough to catch Boasson Hagen. Farrar finished third behind Australia's Goss.

"Tyler? It was nice to beat him, he is really a strong guy," said Boasson Hagen.

Boasson Hagen won the Gent-Wevelgem one-day race in April, one stage of the Giro d'Italia in May and two stages of the Tour de Pologne this month. He is Norway's time trial champion and won the Critérium International time trial in March.