Hayman tops sprint for Paris-Bourges win

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Mathew Hayman took his first win of the season for Team Sky, taking out the sprint of a large group in Paris-Bourges. He was part of a breakaway which had escaped early and was only caught in the final kilometer. Baden Cooke of Saxo Bank and Hayman's Sky teammate Greg Henderson completed the podium.

It was the first victory since the Commonwealth Games road race in 2006 for the 33-year-old Australian.

"I was leading into the last 400 metres and managed a good sprint," Hayman said on teamsky.com. "I’d seen that the guys behind were lining up so I just went and Baden Cooke got alongside me but couldn’t quite get over me and Greg was finishing very fast on the outside but the line came quicker.

"I was really happy with that - I think we got away after about 15km and I ended up kind of winning a sprint so there was a bit of disbelief afterwards!"

A large group got away early on, with the Vacansoleil team heavily represented. John Degenkolb (HTC Highroad), Gustav-Erik Larsson (Saxo Bank), Geoffroy Lequatre (RadioShack), Romain Feillu, Marco Marcato and Bert-Jan Lindeman (all Vacansoleil-DCM), Mathew Hayman (Sky), Ludovic Turpin (Saur-Sojasun), Frédéric Guesdon (FDJ), Alexandre Geniez (Skil-Shimano), Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Type 1), Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp), Anthony Perez (La Pomme Marseille) and Paul Voss (Endura Racing) never built up a lead of much more than two minutes

Voss was very active, trying repeatedly to get away from the group. With about 50km to go, Voss, Degenkolb, Lequatre, Marcato, Hayman and Bodrogi pulled slightly away on the climb up the Cote de Bue. Behind the breakaway, Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) and a handful of others broke free from the chasing peloton.

It had been pouring down rain all day, and then the wind started up. It didn't stop Flecha, though, who quickly moved his group up to within 40 seconds of the leaders, with the field at 1:30 at 35km to go.

The group around Flecha grew, and also included riders who had fallen out of the lead group. Lars Bak (HTC), André Steensen, Baden Cooke, Gustav Larsson and Kasper Klostergaard (all Saxo Bank), Matthew Busche (RadioShack), Stijn Devolder, Bjorn Leukemans and Bert-Jan Lindeman (all Vacansoleil), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis)
Ludovic Turpin, Jonathan Hivert and Guillaume Levarlet (all Saur Sojasun), Nacer Bouhanna (FDJ), Bert De Waele (Landbouwkrediet), Alexandre Geniez (Skil Shimano), Cesare Benedetti (NetApp), and Jack Bauer (Endurance Racing) made up the group chasing the leaders around Voss.

The situation changed almost by the minute as they approached the finish line. With 15km to go, Bodrogi was dropped from the lead group as the peloton pulled closer. The groups came more or less together again, and Hayman proved to have the fastest legs of a 20-man group sprinting for the win.

"My last victory was the Commonwealth Games in 2006 so it’s been a while in between but it’s nice to win a race in a Team Sky jersey," Hayman said.

"I knew [last week] at Franco-Belge that I was going pretty well and Steven [de Jongh, the team's Sports Director] in the car told me to make sure I was confident in my sprint and I guess that's what I did.

"I’m now really looking forward to Paris-Tours on Sunday, it’s really the last classic for the the kind of guys like me who enjoy those sort of events. It’s been a bit of a goal of mine at the end of the year after the World Championships.

"This win today puts the icing on the cake and means I’ll go in there pretty relaxed but knowing I’ve got good form."

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