Gediminas Bagdonas takes seventh stage as Lars Boom celebrates overall lead in Tour of Britain
An Post-Sean Kelly’s Gediminas Bagdonas took his biggest victory of his career in the seventh stage of Tour of Britain on Saturday, September 17. Lars Boom managed to extend his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Bury St. Edmunds and finished in Sandringham. The Lithuanian cyclists gained a lead in the six-man breakaway cyclists and took a total of 4 hours, 33 minutes and 17 seconds to cover the distance of 200 kilometres.
Bagdonas said, “I won a big race and my team did really well. It is very important for me to win today and for the people at home in Lithuania. The support today was very good and I am very happy. Tomorrow I will be going for the time trial. Today I had
good legs so I will go for it tomorrow.”
With few kilometres to go, the six cyclists gain a lead of six minutes including, Gediminas Bagdonas, Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing), Mathieu Claude (Team Europcar), Stijn Enrick, Richard Handley (Team Raleigh) and Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport-Specialized).
Richard Handley tried his best to take a lead and launched an attack but was unable to hold his pace and Bagdonas showed some tremendous ability and took the first three sprints of the stage.
He further added, “I was happy in the break, I stiffened up a bit, as most of us do at some point, around the 40 kilometre mark but I got fired up again for the finish.”
Ian Wilkinson was in second place and Mathieu Claude finished third with same timing as the Lithuanian. Richard Handley secured fifth place with a difference of 4 seconds ahead of Sybrandy and Cavendish.
Boom retained his overall lead with a time of 24 hours, 47 minutes and 58 seconds while Koning was in second at 28 seconds down to Boom. Daniel Lloyd grabbed third with a difference of 29 seconds.
The next 8a, 8b time trial stage will start and finish in London as all the cyclists will cover the distance of 10 kilometres in the 8a and 80 kilometres in 8b.
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