Boasson Hagen claims Britain's third stage

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Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) added another Tour of Britain stage victory to his impressive palmares today in Gretna Green. The Norwegian all-rounder used his high speed capability to rocket his way down the final 200m finishing straight, holding off the challenge from Michele Merlo (Barloworld) and Chris Sutton (Garmin-Slipstream). Boasson Hagen won three stages in last year’s event.

Kai Reus (Rabobank) finished safely in the bunch on the same time as the winner and retains the yellow jersey going into the Blackpool stage tomorrow, but the competition is close behind. Boasson Hagen is in second place at 11 seconds with Sutton at 12.

“It was really great last year,” said Boasson Hagen. “And it’s really good that I was able to win again today. I had a perfect lead-out from the team. We waited until about two kilometres to go and we set the pace with everyone on the front. Tony Martin led me out with 300m to go. I may have opened up the sprint a little bit early but I made it.

“I was ill last week and missed training so my form has not been so good but I am hoping that it will improve before the World Championships,” he added. “I hope I can win the stage into Stoke on Trent again this year. I want to try to keep close on the general classification but I hope I can win some more stages.”

Boasson Hagen’s British success comes less than a week after he was named on start-up British squad Team Sky’s roster for 2010. Today's result will have certainly impressed Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford, who was in town to see his new signing take the stage victory. “I am really excited about the new team. It looks like it will be a really good team and I will get some good support. I hope we can be as strong as Columbia,” he said.

The day started brightly again with a number of attacks going in the first few kilometres. German road race champion Martin Reimer and the ever aggressive Thomas De Gendt (TopSport – Vlaanderen) were the only riders to succeed in moving clear from the bunch led by the Rabobank team. Darren Lapthorne (Rapha Condor) and Rob Ruygh (Vacansoleil) saw the danger and jumped over to the leaders and the quartet built a useful lead of 2:40 minutes at 20km.

Reimer won the first sprint at Melrose with De Gendt second but the Belgian was first over the summit of Bowden Hill to consolidate his lead in the mountains competition. Rabobank continued to ride tempo with the main field tucked in behind.

The gap was fluctuating until the Joker Bianchi team began helping Rabobank chase 50km from the finish and the break was doomed. De Gendt tried to counter attack as the quartet was being reeled in but it was an Agritubel rider that caught and passed De Gendt before he too was brought back.

Agritubel’s Emilien Berges saw the opportunity to counter attack, so the brave Frenchman gritted his teeth and began to pull away from the peloton. Berges’ solo effort lasted until the one kilometre remaining kite was in view and he was swallowed up by the fast moving bunch, being led by Italian champion Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) who was working for team-mate Danilo Napolitano.

Pozzato swung off the front and Columbia-HTC took up the mantle to lead-out the sprint with Boasson Hagen coming through to win the sprint and the stage. De Gendt now leads the sprint competition with 37 points with Reimer in second with only 16. He also leads the mountains competition with 35 points with Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil) in second place with 18 points.

Race leader Kai Reus is still taking in his stage victory from Sunday. “It was tough today,” said Reus. “But it was a beautiful day and it was up and down and I love Scotland. We will see how it goes tomorrow. My legs were tired early on but today was good for me. Tomorrow looks easy and could be another bunch sprint and if Boasson Hagen wins it he will be in the lead and I might not be in the yellow jersey tomorrow. The team was very strong today.

“It was part of our plan today to let a break get away,” he said. “I told Thomas De Gendt that if he tried again that he might be able to get away. I think his legs will be very painful today. Yesterday was a very special day because of the race and also afterwards when I had many messages and I had lots of comments on my website. It was incredible.”