Sixth on first mountain stage
It’s been a mixed spring for Edvald Boasson Hagen due to injury, but indications are that the summer will be far better for him in terms of results. The talented 24 year old Norwegian rider placed a strong sixth on today’s stage of Critérium du Dauphiné, climbing with the race contenders and moving to fifth overall, thirteen seconds behind new race leader Alexandre Vinokourov.
“I was feeling quite good in the final climb but the last 300 metres were really hard. It was complicated to follow all the attacks,” he said afterwards. “Our team Sky did a really good job in closing the gaps. The tactic today was for me to attempt the stage win and for Bradley Wiggins to follow closely.”
Although he is the team’s protected GC rider in the race, Wiggins lost contact near the top and crossed the line fifteen seconds back in eleventh. Boasson Hagen is now just two seconds behind his team-mate in the general classification and, importantly, is leading the best young rider competition.
It’s a nice turnaround after the weather meant that he only finished nineteenth in the prologue, 15 seconds back. “The white jersey is a reward and a bit of a compensation for my bad luck yesterday. I was just unlucky to ride my prologue under the rain but there’s not much I could do about that,” he said. “I was still happy with my legs, and I am today as well.”
However the 2010 stage winner doesn’t expect to take over team leadership. “My main goal at the Dauphiné is to help Bradley,” he insisted.
Directeur sportif Sean Yates isn’t favouring one over the other, but rather is simply happy that both riders are up there. “The winner obviously did a fantastic ride and behind him it was pretty much a straight-out drag race between the rest of the field,” he said. “So it was good to see that Brad and Eddy were there, while Rigoberto Uran did some work and really took it on.”
Tomorrow’s 179 kilometre stage to Lyon is expected to finish in a bunch sprint, even though it has a slightly uphill drag to the line. Should he opt to go for it, Boasson Hagen is one of those to watch. It will then be followed by a stage which should be a lot more crucial for the general classification; the 42.5 kilometre time trial in and around Grenoble.
With both Boasson Hagen and Wiggins being strong time trialists, Yates is looking forward to seeing how things unfold.
“Edvald showed he had good power yesterday in the prologue when he was a bit unlucky with the conditions he had to endure and he proved that again today,” he said. “All in all then it was a good day and it’s looking pretty rosy heading towards the TT on Wednesday.”