Dominant Boasson Hagen wins in Bideford

17.09.2009

Edvald Boasson Hagen’s dominance of The Tour of Britain continued, with his fourth stage victory in the 2009 race coming on the banks of the River Torridge at Bideford in Devon.  In front of large crowds the Norwegian extended his overall lead by taking his seventh victory in Britain in two years, confirming his presence as one of the world’s top sprinters.

Boasson Hagen benefited from the work of Team Columbia – HTC and the Cervelo Test Team in giving him a perfect lead out, setting him up to outsprint Martin Reimer and Russell Downing on the Bideford quayside, saying afterwards that “it’s never boring to win stages”.

Despite the comfortable nature of his win, Columbia had to work hard to set up their man, only finally catching a daylong break with 1.5 kilometres to go.  The break had a strong British presence, with Geraint Thomas, Ben Swift and Ian Stannard accompanied by soon-to-be Sky rider Serge Pauwels and attacker extraordinaire Thomas De Gendt, who has now accumulated an insurmountable lead in the King of the Mountains competition.

The biggest crowds of the race so far waved The Tour of Britain off from the Somerset market town of Frome under clear blue skies, with Pauwels the first to go on the attack just before three kilometres.  The Cervelo rider was joined by Thomas, Swift, Stannard and De Gendt, with the Columbia led peloton showing no interest in chasing and allowing the break to slip out to just over two minutes by the time the race reached Wells after 20 kilometres.

Two minutes eighteen was the maximum advantage the quintet built, with Columbia’s watching brief providing a textbook example of how to keep a breakaway at arms length during a tough stage of racing.  Both the first two King of the Mountains came and went without any attacks from the peloton, allowing the white, yellow and black clad riders to continue setting a tempo on the front and limiting any time gaps.

At the front Thomas showed his strength by setting the pace on each climb, with the gap fluctuating between one and two minutes depending on the terrain.

Coming onto the main climb of the day at Winsford Hill above Dulverton it was again Thomas setting out the pace, but De Gendt taking the maximum points.  Behind the Columbia train on the front wrapped up the remaining points and ensured there were no unexpected attacks from the peloton.

From just under two minutes at the top of the Hill the lead tumbled to less than a minute within twenty kilometres as the race reached a packed Barnstaple.  Thousands of spectators greeted the race, cheering on the five man break, which became four as Swift was tailed off exiting the town.

Having shrunk the lead began to go back out, but with Columbia gradually upping the pace there looked to be no escape despite the group continuing to work well together. 

From 40 seconds with ten kilometres of coast roads to go, the lead was still 29 seconds with five kilometres to go, but once Joker Bianchi and Cervelo began to help the deficit was slashed with the catch coming at just over 1.5 kilometres. 

With the pace high there was no chance for anyone to launch a last ditch attack on the finish line, with Boasson Hagen benefiting from Cervelo hitting the front with around 500metres to go and towing the Norwegian through the final corner and giving him, in his own words, “a nice leadout”.

“I was quite confident the whole stage, except with ten kilometres to go, but then we got some help from some other guys and brought them back. 

“It’s never boring to win stages, so I’m really happy that I can win again.  The team was working very hard today, as there was a strong group in front so it was hard to close it out.”

Having once again shown his good form, Geraint Thomas was disappointed not to have stayed away until the finish 

“I saw that Swifty and Stannard were in there, so I thought ‘Yeah it’s worth going with them’.  We just wanted to put Columbia under a bit of pressure and make them ride all day, and if I was there they’d have to keep us in touch and bring us back, so that was the main thing.

“They’re all going to be a bit tired now, and obviously I am, but we’ve still got Steve (Cummings) and Froomey,(Chris Froome) so we’ll be attacking tomorrow and we’re definitely not going to give them an easy ride.

“I’ve been feeling good on the climbs and I just want to keep the pressure on, because you know Swifty and Stannard, they get a bit soft.  It was a nice group of riders, and we worked well.

“To be honest I didn’t think it was going to succeed at all until about 4k to go.  We gave it a good shot, and I gambled a bit, I didn’t go flat out and I bluffed it a little bit, but that’s bike racing and sometimes you’ve got to gamble a little bit.”

Olympic champion Thomas also had a few words of praise for his breakaway companion, saying, “Hats off to him, it’s his fourth day out there and he was still pretty strong.”

Another impressive performance from the Belgian rider gave him the King of the Mountains jersey and all but secured the Sprints competition, however the youngster is reluctant to celebrate prematurely, saying, “I still have to finish tomorrow, maybe I have bad legs and fall behind.  No attacks anymore, I think I have enough kilometres in my legs already!”

“The team leader said it would be useful if I had some more points for the Mountains.  If I had the first two mountains then they couldn’t catch me.  I know it was going to be hard, because Vacansoleil wanted to bring us back but we had five guys, and everyone did his work and was strong, so I had the right guys with me.”