Edvald Boasson Hagen
In a stage that many believed was too hard for pure sprinters, Norway’s bright young home Edvald Boasson Hagen held off a late charge from Matt Goss to claim the first Tour de France stage win for his Sky team.
The Norwegian celebrations should last long into the evening as third place in Lisieux was taken by Thor Hushovd, the general classification leader who doesn’t understand the word ‘surrender’. Or, if he does, it’s not something he tends to do.
On a wet, long day in the saddle, the pace was fast at the start with an average speed of 49.4km/h in the opening hour but then an escape was allowed to gain an advantage of over 10 minutes. Never mind, they would never stay ahead: HTC refused to allow that to happen even if their sprinter, Mark Cavendish was dropped early. They had aspirations with their Tour debutant Goss who ever nearly delivered a victory.
As good as the Tasmanian was, he couldn’t get ahead of the powerhouse from Norway who won a Giro d’Italia stage with Goss’ team before joining Sky in 2009.
The longest stage of the 2011 Tour de France began at 11.54am with 194 riders still in the race. The non-starter was Ivan Velasco (EUS) who quit because of a broken collarbone sustained in a crash. The stage featured three climbs: cat-3 Cote de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie (at 99.5km) the cat-3 Cote du Bourg-d’Oilly (at 156.5km), and the cat-4 Cote du Billot (at 197km). The intermediate sprint was in Vassy at 131km. The conditions were mild with a temperature at the start of around 20 degrees Celsius. It was dry in Dinan but there was a wind blowing from the north-east.
The first attack of the stage came around the 5km mark and was instigated by Roux (FDJ). He was joined by Westra (VCD); this pair was joined in the lead (at 7km) by Duque (COF), Malori (LAM) and Hoogerland (VCD). Other riders attempted to bridge to the front group but none were successful in the first 20km when the original escapees had a lead of 55”. Around the 30km mark, the peloton called a truce of sorts and the advantage grew quickly: 2’40” at 35km; 4’20” at 40km; 5’45” at 44km… the average speed for the first hour was 49.4km/h!
Rain started to fall during the second hour and, by then, the escapees had build the biggest advantage so far in the 98th Tour: 9’10” at 66km. At 75km the Garmin team assumed position at the head of the peloton and began to limit the gains of the escape. The average for the second hour was 41.8km/h.
The maximum gain of the escape was 11’35” (at the top of the climb). Just before the cote de Saint-Michel-de-Montjoie, there was an attack from Hoogerland who raced ahead to claim first place and increase his tally of climbing points to three. The Garmin and HTC teams then shared the workload at the head of the peloton until Movistar arrived with about six kilometers to go to the intermediate sprint. Roux took the 20 points in Vassy with a fine sprint against Duque. Meanwhile the Movistar team led it out for the peloton and Cavendish was marked closely by Rojas.
The HTC leader easily accounted for the Spaniard in a clean sprint and added 10 points to his tally in the green jersey competition. The average for the third hour was 36.6km/h.
On the second climb, the five escapees rode tempo until about 350m from the line when Roux launched off the front to beat Hoogerland over the line. The Dutchman still acquired a point and was poised to inherit the polka-dot jersey thanks to his efforts in the escape today. With 70km to go, the peloton was 2’35” behind the escapees. With 60km to go, Westra attacked the lead group and was marked by Malori.
The peloton was 1’40” behind. The average for the fourth hour was 40.6km/h. Roux returned to the peloton with 45km to go, Hoogerland was caught 42km from the finish when Malori and Westra were 3’00” ahead of the peloton. Duque returned to the peloton 40km from the end. Westra led over the final climb and continued to work with Malori until 18.5km to go when the Italian attacked and the Dutchman waited for the bunch.
Roux attacked the peloton (again) with 13.5km to go. He was caught (again) at 10km to go.
With 6km to go, Leipheimer crashed along a guardrail on the side of the road just as Malori was putting in his final bid for glory… but it wasn’t to be, he was swallowed up with 3km to go. With 2km to go Vanendert attacked and was chased down by Voeckler. This pair earned an advantage of about 100m but Millar, Evans, Thomas and Gilbert were at the front of a hungry peloton that refused to give them any chance of success. After the ‘Flamme Rouge’ Vinokourov tried an attack but was caught by Mollema who opened up a decent gap but not enough to hold off an elite bunch of sprinters.
There were 62 in the front peloton but no one had as much class as the young Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen who came off the wheel of Thomas with 400m to go. Hushovd followed his compatriot up the left of the road and Goss closed in quickly but the Sky rider held off the charge from the Australian to claim his maiden victory in the Tour de France.
Gilbert finished seventh and Rojas fifth which means the Belgian keeps the green jersey by just one point.
Hushovd’s third place means he will keep the yellow jersey for another day.
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