Edvald Boasson Hagen wins 6th stage and Thor Hushovd retains yellow jersey in 2011 Tour De France
Sky Procycling team’s Edvald Boasson Hagen won the thrilling sprint of the sixth stage of 2011 Tour de France on Thursday, July 6. Garmin-Cervelo rider, Thor Hushovd, retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Dinan and ended in Lisieux. The 24-year-old Norwegian cyclist took a total of 5 hours, 13 minutes and 37 seconds to cover the distance of 226 kilometres and took his first Tour de France stage victory.
After winning the stage, Hagen said, “I felt good yesterday but it went wrong and I really wanted to work hard to do well in today’s stage, G (Geraint Thomas) did a good lead-out and it’s just fantastic to win a stage of the Tour. I’m just really happy and
winning my first stage of the Tour [in front of my family] is really great.”
Matthew Harley Goss of HTC-Highroad was the runner-up and race leader, Thor Hushovd of Garmin-Cervelo, finished in the third spot.
Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar) tried his best to catch the 62 cyclists, but he failed and grabbed the 63th place with a difference of 23 seconds, ahead of Sandy Casar and Rui Alberto.
Sky Procycling team’s Ben Swift showed his good performance in the stage, but was unable to maintain his pace and grabbed the 106th place.
Swift told the media, “It was the longest stage but it felt like one of the quickest. I tried to position Edvald and G and it was a tough climb at the finish so I went a long way up the climb for the two of them before they did their thing.”
The first breakaway was formed after a few kilometres. Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) increased his pace and was joined by Johnny Hoogerland, Anthony Roux of FDJ, Cofidis’ Colombian Leonardo Duque and Adriano Malori of Lampre – ISD.
Thomas Voeckler maintained his pace and made an exclusive move with Jelle Vanendert, but after the attack the pair got away. Thomas tried his best to take a lead, but Hagen emerged from the pack and won his first stage victory.
Hushovd took overall classification with a timing of 22 hours, 50 minutes and 34 seconds, while Cadel Evans was the runner-up with 1 second behind Thor. Frank Schleck grabbed the third spot with a difference of 4 seconds.
The next stage will start in Le Mans and ended in Châteauroux. All the riders will cover the distance of 215 kilometres.
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