Boasson Hagen takes sprint victory in Lagoa

Image 1 of 36

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) earned his first win of the 2012 season as he blasted to a field sprint victory at the end of stage 2 in the Volta ao Algarve.

The 24-year-old Norwegian was tucked in behind the Omega Pharma-QuickStep lead-out train entering the final kilometre, and came off of Gerald Ciolek's wheel with 200 metres to go for the win. Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM) finished second, while Ciolek crossed the line for third place.

"I'm really happy and it's always nice to get your first victory of the season," said Boasson Hagen. "The team did a good job to keep me up front with 1k 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 and 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."

Boasson Hagen took over the leader's jersey held by stage one winner Gianni Meersman (Lotto Belisol). The Belgian holds second overall with the same time as Boasson Hagen, while Boeckmans moves up to third at four seconds.

Boasson Hagen is modest about his general classification ambitions, particularly with teammates Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Richie Porte also competing in Portugal.

"I'm not a super climber and I'm not sure if I can manage to stay in yellow but it's more important to keep the GC guys up there," said Boasson Hagen. "We'll see what happens. I will try to stay in there as long as possible and hopefully I can help the guys."

The Volta ao Algarve peloton will face the queen stage tomorrow, featuring five categorised climbs and culminating with a mountain finish atop the category 2 Alto do Malhao.

Break of the day forms early

Just two kilometres into the stage, three riders went on the attack to seek their fortunes in the Volta ao Algarve's second day of racing: Raul Alarcon (Efapel-Glassdrive), Niels Wytinck (An Post-Sean Kelly) and Tomás Swift-Metcalfe (Carmim-Prio).

After 28 kilometres of racing, the trio's advantage ballooned to nearly six minutes over a complacent peloton, but Lotto Belisol, working for race leader Gianni Meersman, began to up the tempo in the field and keep the escapees' margin at a manageable size.

By 65.5km, their lead stood at 3:00, where it stabilised for the next hour of racing.

A pair of category three climbs shattered the break, as the Portugal-based Swift-Metcalfe dropped his two companions and swept up top honours for each KOM at 107.3km and 136.7km. Alarcon and Wytinck were absorbed by the peloton, while the Briton pressed onward to the finish line in Lagoa on his own, as the parcours was now largely downhill for the remainder of the 187.5km stage.

Swift-Metcalfe, however, having taken both KOMs, opted to sit up and was soon absorbed by the peloton on the narrow, undulating roads only to have Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and César Fonte (Efapel-Glassdrive) go on the attack and take his place off the front.

Carmim-Prio took over the pace-making duties from Lotto Belisol with 35km to go as the peloton left the narrower, mountain roads and reached the wide-open thoroughfares comprising the stage finale, ideal for making quick work of Van Hecke's and Fonte's 1:30 advantage.

The Portuguese Continental squad steadily chipped away at the break's lead and with 20km remaining the ProTour squads of Lotto Belisol, Sky and Vacansoleil-DCM assumed the chase effort at the head of the field. The two-man escape was soon absorbed just two kilometres later.

Not content to wait for a field sprint finish, Christophe Riblon (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) rolled off the front of the peloton and eked out a 26-second lead with 11km remaining.

The wide-open roads were not to the duo's advantage, and with the teams of the sprinters eager for another bunch gallop finale their escape attempt came to a conclusion five kilometres from the finish line.