First Endurance rider Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) won the high-speed finish on the seafront in Blackpool today at the Tour of Britain.

The Columbia-HTC riders controlled the peloton in the final kilometres after Maxime Monfort was part of the key breakaway during the 151km stage. A crash five hundred metres from the finish scattered the peloton but Boasson Hagen was ahead of it and got a perfect lead out from Tony Martin. It was his 11th win of the 2009 season and the 79th victory for Team Columbia-HTC.

“We decided to ride for Edvald again and lead him out in the sprint. It worked perfectly,” directeur sportif Valerio Piva said. “Maxime got across to the break in the middle, hilly section of the stage. That was important because it meant the other guys didn’t have to chase and could safe their energy for the sprint. There was a crash in the finale but because we lead out the sprint, we avoided it.”

Thanks to a ten-second time bonus for winning the stage, Boasson Hagen is now just one second behind Kai Reus of the Netherlands in the overall standings. “We’re close now and so we have to try and win overall,” Piva said. “Edvald is on form, we’ve got a strong team here, and so why not'. We’ve done it before.”