Coming off a determined Omega Pharma Quick Step train which was working flat out for Gerald Ciolek, Sky Procycling’s Edvald Boasson Hagen snatched victory on today’s second stage of the Volta ao Algarve.
The young Norwegian led from the front when the sprint started and while Kris Boekmans (Vacansoleil DCM) and Ciolek gave everything to try to get past, the Sky rider was too strong.
“I’m really happy and it’s always nice to get your first victory of the season,” Boasson Hagen said afterwards. “The team did a good job to keep me up front with one kilometre to go so I didn’t have to spend too much energy before that. Then it was just about staying on the wheel of the Quickstep train. It was quite easy to stay up there and wait until the last 200 metres, then I went.
“It was a goal for me to try and get a victory here. Yesterday I was a bit surprised how quickly we came to the line. I was a bit frustrated so it was really nice to get the win and the race lead.”
Matti Breschel (Rabobank) finished behind Ciolek in fourth place and showed that he is coming back to form after crashing badly in last year’s Vuelta.
Overnight race leader Gianni Meersman (Lotto Belisol) had intended going for the sprint but things didn’t work out. He finished back in fifteenth place. The time bonus for first moved Boasson Hagen level on time with him and, because of his better points total, the Norwegian took over the yellow jersey. Breschel ended the day third overall.
“It was a great result for Edvald. It was nice to see him open his account this season,” Boasson Hagen’s directeur sportif Sean Yates said on the Sky Procycling website afterwards. “It was a similar situation to yesterday where he went in with no pressure. He wasn’t particularly happy with his result on stage one with his sprint but today was a bit more straightforward and he made amends.
“That puts him in the lead now which is good news. We’ve got a stage in the bag and tomorrow we can concentrate on the GC. Obviously we want to defend the jersey but now we’ve got another mission in getting the GC guys up there on the climb.”
Boasson Hagen has ridden well on climbs in the past, most notably in last year’s Criterium du Dauphine, where he did superb work for Bradley Wiggins, but isn’t sure about his chances on tomorrow’s slug-out to the top of the Alto do Malhão. If he falters, the team will hope that Richie Porte will step up instead. The Australian is thirteenth, ten seconds back.
Early break tries to go all the way:
The 187.5 kilometre stage from Faro to Lagoa saw a very early move, with Niels Wytinck (An Post Grant Thornton Sean Kelly), Raul Alarcón (Efapel-Glassdrive) and Tomás Swift-Metcalfe (Carmim-Tavira) surging ahead very soon after the drop of the flag.
Alarcón took the meta volante sprints at Estói (km 9.3) and Loulé (km 27.8), then after 50 kilometres of racing the trio had established a gap of almost five minutes. This remained above three minutes for over an hour. On the approach to the summit of the category three climb of Monchique (km 107.3), Swift pushed clear and opened a forty second gap over the other two.
This grew even further, then things flipped around when the Lotto Belisol team of race leader Gianni Meersman hit the gas, catching the two chasers. The gap to the lone leader was very slight by the time they hit the category three Marmelete (km 136.7), and Swift-Metcalfe was chased and then caught soon afterwards by Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Cesar Fonte (Efapel-Glassdrive).
They built a lead of one minute 40 seconds with 36 kilometres to go, but were finally reeled in 19 kilometres from the line.
Finale plays out perfectly for Boasson Hagen:
Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil DCM) and Ag2r La Mondiale rider Christophe Riblon attacked very soon afterwards and opened up a lead of half a minute. They too were recaptured, with the peloton making contact five kilometres from the finish line. The Omega Pharma Quick Step riders knew that Ciolek’s chances would be boosted if they could burn off the pure sprinters and they ramped up the pace on a drag up towards the final kilometre.
This put a lot of pressure on the bunch and things got quite scrappy behind, with several riders clipping plastic posts set into the ground to guide traffic. Fortunately these were flexible, allowing those riders to stay upright.
Ciolek waited for his chance in the gallop but Boasson Hagen timed things perfectly, getting a good jump in early and then having the power to hold on for the win.
He’s now in yellow heading into day three, but is unsure about how things will go. “I’m not a super climber and I’m not sure if I can manage to stay in yellow,” he said, “but it’s more important to keep the GC guys up there. We’ll see what happens. I will try to stay in there as long as possible and hopefully I can help the guys.”