Boasson Hagen doubles up in Blackpool

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Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) beat Chris Sutton (Garmin Slipstream) and Martin Reimer (Cervelo Test Team) in a tight sprint in Blackpool on Tuesday to win the stage four of the Tour of Britain.

Even with many riders caught behind a crash well into the last kilometre, Boasson Hagen had to work hard to fend off the challenge from the small group that included Russell Downing (CandiTV-Marshalls) and Koldo Fernandez (Euskatel-Euskadi).

Team sport director Valeria Piva credited the team with delivering Boasson Hagen to the stage victory. "It's never easy to win races, but when you've got a team that does the lead out so well and then a rider as strong as Edvald, it does become easier," Piva said.

"We saw that the finish was straight and so we decided to wait for the finish and then lead it out. The guys were always in control and gave Edvald a perfect lead out."

Boasson Hagen won three stages at the 2008 Tour of Britain, and is now just one second behind overall race leader Kai Reus (Rabobank).

"It's nice to win stages, and if I can do that again, then it's also possible to take the yellow jersey because of the time bonuses," Boasson Hagen said.

Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) had escaped early in the stage with Simon Clarke (ISD-Neri) and Frederio Canuti (CSF Navigare) and the three riders forged a lead of over two minutes. As the race approached the first climb of the day at Tatham Fells, Roche was on the front of the break chatting to his breakaway companions in Italian to keep the effort going.

The bunch was about one and a half minutes behind on the climb when Vladimir Karpets (Katusha) launched an attack near the summit with Geraint Thomas (Barloworld) on his wheel and Maxime Monfort (Columbia-HTC) chasing behind. Geoffroy Lequatre (Agritubel) made it across to the three chasers before Thomas punctured and was forced to wait for race service in the narrow lanes. The three remaining chasers then merged with the leaders to create a strong six-man lead group.

Garmin-Slipstream was in fighting form and got to the head of affairs to bring the breakaway group within spitting distance after three and a half hours of racing. The break had appeared to sit up but suddenly found impetus and moved clear again.

The break desperately tried to stay clear but Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) was firing on all cylinders at the front and the leaders were caught with only a kilometre to go. A crash split the field and Boasson Hagen pounded down the Promenade in Blackpool to take his second victory in consecutive days.

Kai Reus was caught in the crash but retained the lead in the yellow jersey competition on the final 3km crash rule. He now leads the race by only one second going into the tough stage five based in Stoke On Trent. Boasson Hagen won this stage last year.

Reus was still grinning ear to ear on the podium wearing the yellow jersey. "Today was very tough," said Reus. "The climbs in the middle were very steep and my legs are not good today. I was a very strange day today and the stage was a little to long for me. Tomorrow is a very short stage with steep climbs and we will have to see how it goes.

"Boasson Hagen is a good sprinter but he is also good in the mountains. Today my team was good but I was not and I was not so happy today."

Chris Sutton finished second on the stage and took over the lead in the points classification with the Garmin team shaping the final outcome of the race.

"We had no real strategy today," explained Sutton: "We knew it was going to end up in a sprint. I wasn’t too sure how I was going to climb over those hills but Brad (Wiggins) has put a lot of faith and confidence in me and he told me I would be able to handle the roads today because they were his training grounds.

"I had a lot of help and support from the team up the climbs and they were there when I needed them. We put Trent Lowe on the front towards the end just to show people that we were keen for the sprint and then Brad got on the front and he was going at about 60kph. It was pretty much Bradley on his own that closed the gap to the leaders, although all the team helped as well but Brad was sitting on the front for 5-10km at a time.

"I was yelling at him on the radio to drop back and he finally came back after 25km and I said ‘mate you’ve gotta save some for the finish’ and he said ‘I’m not even trying hard, I’m picking my nose’. So I said alright, no worries, I’ll hold you to it and was really good at the finish."

"With a kilometre to go I got boxed in around 20 wheels back and I yelled at Brad to go and it just opened up on the right hand side. I guess you could call him Moses where he opened up the Red Sea and it just opened up and Brad went straight through and took me to the front.

"I heard a massive crash behind me with 400m to go and it balked the sprint a little bit. Tony Martin was on the front and Boassen Hagen let me in on his wheel. I opened up the sprint a bit late and should have opened up the sprint earlier. Second is good but I want another win."

Simon Clarke (ISD Neri) reflected on how close the break got to staying clear. "When you go out in the break like that, you put all your eggs in one basket and give it everything," said Clarke. "Because it was such a hard day today I thought that this could be the day that the bunch might be a bit too tired to pull us back. I thought that if all six of us could work together that we might have a chance and we were very close to pulling it off today."