Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) won a rain-soaked final stage of the Tour of Britain, taking off in the final kilometres to hold off a reduced peloton. Maximiliano Richeze (Quick Step Floors) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) rounded out the podium, while Lars Boom (LottoNL-Jumbo) defended his overall lead to take his second Tour of Britain title.
It was, surprisingly enough given the profile, another action-packed day of racing, as an early split in the peloton saw many of the GC favourites and top sprinters break away from the bulk of the riders. The intermediate sprints would be the location of much of the day's action as riders - nine within 20 seconds of the race lead - would squabble over the time bonuses on offer.
Through the course of the stage Boasson Hagen, Boom, Michał Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and Stefan Küng (BMC) hoovered up the bonuses. Boasson Hagen and Kwiatkowski had only managed to gain two seconds on Boom by the final kilometres however, which prompted the Norwegian to go for broke in the final 3km.
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He would succeed in holding off the reduced peloton on the technical Cardiff circuit, and gained a further ten bonus seconds, but would have to settle for second overall, eight seconds down on Boom.
"It's really nice after all the work the other guys in the team have done earlier in the week," Boasson Hagen said after the stage. "It's really nice to manage to move up [on GC]."
"We had a plan before the start that if it came to a bunch sprint then I would try to attack in the last 3km," he added. "I stayed with the plan and nobody managed to catch me. I'm really happy about that."
How it unfolded
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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