Norwegian Success Continues - Boasson Hagen This Time!

The Progress Report
The 179km stage from Gap to Pinerolo in Italy began at 12.36pm with 170 riders still in the race. The stage featured five climbs: the cote de Sainte-Marguerite (cat-3 at 71.5km), Montée de Briançon (cat-3 at 85.5km), col de Montgenèvre (cat-2 at 96.5km), Sestrières in Italy (cat-1 at 117km) and the final rise of the 'Salita' Pramartino (cat-2 only eight kilometers from the finish). The intermediate sprint was in Villar-Saint-Pancrace at 81.5km.

Casar Instigates Early Escape
At the 8km mark Sandy Casar (FDJ) launched an attack and others with him. By 10km there were 10 men in the lead of the stage by 25”, they were: Casar, Sanchez (RAB), Di Gregorio (AST), Costa (MOV), Boasson Hagen (SKY), Thomas (SKY), Hondo (LAM), Van Garderen (THR) and De Gendt (VCD). Garmin-Cervélo and BMC were the teams that assumed position at the front of the peloton. Casar was the best of the escape on GC, starting the stage in 21st overall (at 14’36”). The maximum gain of the escape was just 40” at 20km and the initial escape was over at 41km. The average speed for the first hour was 51.3km/h. At 52km Boasson Hagen again went on the attack, he was joined by 13 others and by 60km the 14 escapees – Perez Moreno (EUS), Mollema (RAB), Tjallingii (RAB), Fofonov (AST), Muravyev (RSH), Amador (MOV), Paterski (LIQ), Boasson Hagen (SKY), Chavanel (QST), Casar (FDJ), El Fares (COF), Bozic (VCD), Leukemans (VCD) and Hivert (SAU) – had a lead of 2’05”. This grew steadily and Europcar assumed position at the head of the peloton. By the site of the sprint the escape had a lead of 5’55” and it was Cavendish who was prepared to chase the point for 15th place in Villar-Saint-Pancrace. The average speed for the second hour was 36.5km/h.

Roche Sets Off On Counter-Attack
The maximum gain of the 14 escapees was 7’20” at at the 90km mark. At the 92km mark – 4km to climb on the col de Montgenevre – Roche (ALM) attacked the peloton and was chased down by two counter-attackers, De Weert (QST) and Hoogerland (VCD). At the top, the 14 leaders were 5’10” ahead of Roche’s trio and 6’35” ahead of the peloton that was still led by the Europcar team. The chase group was 5’12” behind the lead group and the peloton was 6’35” behind. Perez Moreno attacked the lead group 2km from the top of Sestrières and led his former escape companions by 1’05” at the top (with Chavanel taking second place). The counter attack was at 2’05” and the peloton was 7’51” behind.
De Weert started the stage ranked 12th overall, 9’00” behind Voeckler. With 20km to go in the stage, Perez Moreno led the stage by 1’00” to his 13 former escape companions, 2’47” to De Weert’s trio and 7’05” to a Lampre/Garmin-led peloton. At the base of the final climb, Perez Moreno was 35” ahead of the next group and 5’55” ahead of the BMC/Leopard-led peloton.

Boasson Hagen Goes Solo To Take Win Number-Two...
Perez Moreno was caught Chavanel who attacked the chase group 16km from the finish. The French champion led briefly but, 2km from the top of the final climb, Boasson Hagen chased him down, followed for a moment and then attacked... bursting into the lead of the stage with 11km to go. At the 10km to go mark, he led Hivert by 10”, Mollema by 20”, Chavanel by 30”. Boasson Hagen had done a reconnaissance of the descent before the stage and it paid off as he was able to attack the downhill and race on to a fine stage victory whiie, behind him, the likes of Hivert and Voecker (in particular) suffered losses when they overshot several turns and were forced to start their race after scrambling back on to the road. Boasson Hagen held off the chase by Mollema and got to salute his second stage win without having to worry about the rider in second place (as was the case when he won the sprint in Liseux). Norwegian riders have now won four stages (plus the TTT for Hushovd) and Sky celebrates a second victory in the Tour by the team’s wunderkind.

Contador Animates The Finale (Again)
Before the stage began Brad McGee said that Saxo Bank-SunGard had to not only seize opportunities but create them if they didn’t exist. That’s just what Contador did on the salita Pramartino, the climb that peaked just 8km from the finish. With 5km to climb, he launched the first of a series of attacks but it was on the descent that he gained the most time on his rivals (ie. the Schleck brothers and Evans, but also Voeckler who crested the final climb 10” behind the defending Tour champion. On the descent Voeckler went off the road twice while Contador raced ahead along with Samuel Sanchez. The Spanish pair was caught by the other favorites just before the finish but Voeckler lost 27” of his overall advantage... yet he continues to lead the general classification and he will wear the yellow jersey in stage 18.