UPDATED: Elia Viviani takes second stage at Tour of Britain as Edvald Boasson Hagen is relegated
Sep 04 2017 11:23 pm CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSElia Viviani (Team Sky) has claimed the victory at the second stage of the Tour of Britain after Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) was relegated for irregular sprinting.
The second stage of the British race was 211 kilometres long between the Kielder Forest Park and Blyth. It was a route with three second category climbs that was bound to finish in a bunch sprint.
The day started with a breakaway of seven riders. Rory Townsend (BIKE Channel), Graham Briggs (JLT Condor), Matthew Holmes (Madison Genesis), Lukasz Owsian (CCC Sprandi), Kamil Gradek (ONE Pro), Jacob Scott (An Post CRC) and Silvan Dillier (BMC) got an advantage of more than five minutes over the peloton.
The first to drop from the front group was Townsend at less than 30 kilometres to go. At around the 15 kilometre mark the rest of the escapees were caught and teams like Katusha-Alpecin, Dimension Data and Orica-Scott started setting the pace for the final sprint.
With ten kilometres to go, Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) attacked but was soon caught by a fast peloton pulled by Team Sky. At the final sprint, Edvald Boasson Hagen broke the second-place spell and managed to win the sprint, leaving Elia Viviani (Team Sky) and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) in second and third position.
Minutes after the finish, the jury decided that Boasson Hagen's sprint was irregular, granting the victory to the Italian rider of Team Sky.
With this win, Viviani also tops the General Classification standings.
