Events

Tour of Norway #4: Edvald Boasson Hagen sprints to victory

· By Press Office · 0 comments

It was a great day for Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka as Edvald Boasson Hagen sprinted to the victory on stage 4 of the Tour of Norway. Our Norwegian champion beat Sondre Holst Enger (Norway) and Paul Martens (LottoNL-Jumbo) to the line.

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Our African Team were always on the front foot during today’s 174km stage from Fla to Eggemoen as Reinardt Janse van Rensburg jumped into the early break of the day. With representation in the break, the other teams were forced to make a contribution to the race while the rest of our Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka riders could spend the day riding in the peloton.

The team looked after Boasson Hagen and were riding well as a unit, not even a stray dog that ran into the peloton and caused Youcef Reguigui to crash could disrupt our plans for the stage. Reguigui got up straightaway and chased backed to the peloton to support Edvald. When the race came onto the finishing circuit, Janse van Rensburg was still part of the 7 rider break but the peloton had brought the gap down from 5’00” to 45″ with just 10km to go.

The race came back together with 2.5km to go and Janse van Rensburg held his position in front to assist Boasson Hagen and Reguigui with their positioning. The race was in pieces though as the rain and wind had taken its toll on the riders. Reguigui did a good final turn before Edvald was left to take on the technical sprint finish with 11 other riders. At one point it looked like Boasson Hagen wasn’t going to get a gap to start his sprint but the Norwegian champ found a way, and crossed the line first. This would be Boasson Hagen’s 4th win of the season and our African Team’s 11th win of the year.

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In the overall classification, Boasson Hagen remained in 3rd place but the gap to Pieter Weening’s leader’s jersey is now 43 seconds away from Edvald.

It was great teamwork today. We managed to get Reinie in the breakaway and then we could just sit in the group and relax, and save for the final. The rest of the team helped to keep me in a good position all day and also into the last climb. I managed to stay on the right wheel and took the sprint so I am really happy about the teamwork and for my victory of course. There was a lot of headwind in the sprint so I had to wait but I was also getting boxed in a bit so I was happy to get out and it’s great that I managed to take the win.
Edvald Boasson Hagen – Rider

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