Thor Hushovd wins in Wales as Lars Boom seals triumph in Tour of Britain 2011 – Cycling Update
Garmin-Cervelo team’s Thor Hushovd powered to victory in the fourth stage of Tour of Britain 2011 on Wednesday, September 14. He is the second rider to win the stage of the race wearing the rainbow jersey.
Lars Boom maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey with a timing of 12 hours, 36 minutes and 51 seconds as Geraint Thomas of Sky Procycling was in the runner-up spot 12 seconds down to Boom.
After finishing the stage, Boom said, "I am disappointed I got second to Hushovd, but he's a good winner, and I'm really happy with the team. The plan was to survive the day because it's maybe one of the most difficult stages of this race.”
The race started in Welshpool and ended in Caerphilly. With few kilometres to go, the three cyclists including Kristian House (Rapha Condor-Sharp), Jack Bauer (Endura Racing) and Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post-Sean Kelly) managed to get away and build a lead
of six minutes over the peloton.
Boom further added, "We let the breakaway of three go so that Sky had to chase down the guys for the win, because I think [Geraint] Thomas lives round here."
They worked well together and extended their lead. Russell Hampton (Sigma Sport) increased his pace and jumped away to gain points in the climb. The Sky Team worked on the front and quickly opened a gap while HTC-Highroad and Rabobank were also working hard
to gain a lead.
However, in the final kilometres, Boom and Hushovd got away but road race World Champion Thor crossed the finish line first ahead of the other cyclists.
Recently, Thor also took the second, third and sixteen stage of Tour de France and also grabbed first place in the fourth stage Tour de Suisse and Tour of Britain.
He took a total of 4 hours, 32 minutes and 22 seconds to cover the distance of 180 kilometres while Boom was in second with the same timing as Thor. Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp) was in third place ahead of Ian Bibby of Motorpoint and Boy Van Poppel.
The next stage will run in Exeter and finish in Exmouth as all the riders will cover the distance of 180 kilometres.
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