Phinney crashes but keeps fourth overall
Expected to come under attack from his general classification rivals, Edvald Boasson Hagen underlined his strength in this year’s race by winning the final stage in Geleen, cementing his overall victory in the WorldTour event. The Norwegian rider avoided a crash which took out some other fast riders and beat Manuel Cardoso (Team RadioShack), Lars Boom (Rabobank), Grega Bole (Lampre-ISD) and 50 others to the line.
Boasson Hagen, now in his second year with Sky Procycling, rounded the final left hand bend in second place. Ahead of him, Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) nearly clipped the barrier, over-corrected and skidded into a crash while the third rider in line, Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha), slid into the barriers. So too Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing Team), who rolled over the top and landed in the spectators.
That left Boasson Hagen with a gap of a couple of lengths over the rest of the group, and he seized his chance to jump hard, open a bigger lead and set up the stage win. Boom and Cardoso chased hard but he finished well clear, grinning broadly at his double success.
“I looked behind me and saw the other guys on the floor which wasn’t nice,” he said. “But it’s good they are okay and I’m really happy that I was able to pick up a stage win as well.”
American rider Phinney had hoped to triumph, knowing that the ten second time bonus would overcome his seven second deficit to David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo) and a podium finish. His crash meant that he instead crossed the line 41 seconds back in 57th place.
Fortunately the location of the accident well inside the final three kilometres meant that he was docked no time. He finished the race fourth overall, 35 seconds down, with Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Millar 22 and 28 seconds back in second and third overall.
Boasson Hagen had no major moments of concern, and indeed his stage win boosted his advantage over closest rival Gilbert by ten seconds. “We had a good plan today and with [Juan Antonio] Flecha getting in the break it allowed us to sit back, conserve energy for later and let other teams do the work,” he said after the line.
“Then we controlled the second half of the race. I’m really thankful for all the team’s support, they did a perfect job again. It’s been really good the whole week; we’ve grown a lot as a team from last year and it’s fantastic to see.”
Dozen-man break takes pressure off Sky Procycling:
154 riders began the final stage of the race, with Leopard Trek’s Robert Wagner not signing on. After five kilometres, the day’s big move went when a dozen riders clipped away. They were comprised of Boasson Hagen’s team-mate Juan Antonio Flecha, David Tanner (Saxo Bank-Sungard), Matt Wilson (Garmin-Cervelo), Francesco Bellotti (Liquigas-Cannondale), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step), Matteo Trentin (Quick Step), Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil-DCM), Mitchell Docher (Skil-Shimano), Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha Tema), Jempy Drucker (Veranda’s Willems-Accent) and Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
The group worked hard together and 32 kilometres later they had build their maximum lead of four minutes. That put Flecha into the leader’s jersey on the road, and meant that his team didn’t have such an onus to defend Boasson Hagen’s jersey. He simply had to watch his big rivals rather than worry too much about how much time those ahead gained.
After 130 kilometres of racing, the riders hit the Doodeman climb. Essentially titled Dead Man’s hill, it murdered the chances of most of those in the break, with just Veuchelen, Trentin, Fouchard, Tanner and Wilson remaining out front. They had less than a minute’s lead and things didn’t look promising.
Behind, third-placed David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo) attacked as promised, ramping up the pace on the same climb. Gilbert closed up as did Lars Bak (HTC Highroad), but Boasson Hagen was wise to the danger and reeled them in.
Eleven clicks later, Fouchard beat Tanner and Trentin at the Cauberg sprint. Behind, Bernhard Eisel (HTC Highroad) attacked some time later and managed to bridge across with 33 kilometres left. After another five kilometres, Fouchard edged out Veuchele and Tanner for the second sprint, where the gap was one minute ten seconds.
After a further 13 kilometres, it was Eisel’s turn to take an intermediate gallop, beating Tanner and Wilson. Their advantage there was down to 40 seconds, and it was clear it was simply a matter of time before they were finally gobbled up. Wilson was the last to resist, surging clear with seven kilometres remaining but being hauled back very soon afterwards following an acceleration by Omega Pharma Lotto’s Jelle Vanendert.
His team-mate Gilbert had been expected to put a big challenge in for the overall, but didn’t have the same spark in his legs as when he won a stage earlier this week. Instead it was Lars Bak (HTC Highroad) who clipped clear, only to be hauled back before the final sprint, those dramatic crashes and Boasson Hagen’s celebratory victory. Overall triumph, stage win and second general classification success since 2009; it was a very good day for the rider and his team.