Boasson Hagen continues Sky success in Tirreno-Adriatico

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Edvald Boassan Hagen had the fastest legs in Tirreno-Adriatico, taking the win after a long sprint to bring in Team Sky's second consecutive sprint victory in two days.

Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) was second, with Liquigas-Cannondale's Peter Sagan third. Matthew Goss of GreenEdge was sixth on the stage, successfully defending his blue leader's jersey.

The man of the day, however, was Filippo Savini of Colnago-CSF, who took off on a long solo flight as soon as the race officially started. He was not caught again until the final 30 kilometers.

Boasson Hagen, 24, only learned near the end of the race that star sprinter Mark Cavendish wasn't feeling well and that the sprint responsibilities would be on him.

“The whole team did a good job to keep me up towards the front. The guys with me did a really great job in the last kilometre. I'm really happy to win and that we managed to get the victory.

"It was a long sprint but I went and I knew I had to go for it. I know that I'm pretty good at long sprints and I've done it before. You never know what the other guys will do but it worked out well.”

Goss placed well in what his team called “a chaotic bunch sprint” to maintain his overall lead. “This was actually the first sprint of the year for Goss,” said Sports Director Matt White. “He’s in a good place. We put him in a decent position coming into the final.”

A long solo flight

175 riders took to the start. Missing was Rabobank's Michael Matthews, who was recovering from a crash in yesterday's finale.

Right from the starting gun, Filippo Savini of Colnago-CSF took off. As he came into the stage already more than nine and a half minutes down, the peloton was happy to let him go. And go he did, building up an 11 minute gap in only 28 km. That proved to be too much for the peloton, which picked up its speed. That, together with a strong headwind, cut the gap down to 7:30 by 75km.

The 26-year-old battled on, taking the mountain points at the short, steep Todi climb at km 120, although his lead continued to drop. He was finally caught with 30 km to go.

The peloton held together from there on, keeping up a very high pace. Boasson Hagen got a good leadout from his team and went into the lead early, hanging on for a strong win. Sagan came in third behind a strong-finishing Greipel, and Tyler Farrar again misfired and could only take fourth place.

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