Boasson Hagen Pulls Off Sprint Ahead of Peloton in Giro's Stage Seven

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Columbia) scored his team their second victory of this year's Giro d'Italia by delivering a powerful sprint out of a breakaway group that finished forty seconds ahead of the peloton.

Stage Seven was a very long 244 kilometers, only a day after a 248-kilometer stage, that featured an astonishing 200 kilometers of uninterrupted gradual climbing.  An all-day breakaway was not looking to be a good option with so much climbing on the menu.

Bartosz Huzarski (ISD), Mauro Facci (Quick Step), Sergey Klimov (Katusha) and Vladimir Isaichev (Xacobeo Galicia) found that out the hard way.  Although they gained an advantage of over nine minutes at their peak, with so many legs working against them to drive the peloton forward, their advantage disappeared very quickly towards the end.

At the top of the Passo Maloja, which is what their 200 kilometers of climbing was working towards, the original breakaway had been swallowed up by the peloton. 

Immediately, Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni) jumped out of the pack and attacked the treacherous and wet downhill run into the finishing town of Chiavenna.  He built up a healthy lead, but the peloton was soon catching up. 

Soon after, Davide Viganò (Fuji-Servetto), Robert Hunter (Barloworld), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-Highroad) and Pavel Brutt (Katusha) jumped out as well and bridged the gap to Bertolini.  With five riders now comfortably ahead of the peloton, they were left amongst themselves to duke it out for the win.

In a game of cat-and-mouse in the final straight, Boasson Hagen, Columbia's upstart 21-year-old Classics specialist, sprinted to the line and beat out seasoned sprinter Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) and Pavel Brutt (Katusha). 

The peloton came in together, with all the top GC men finishing in the same time.  The top 10 on GC as well as the leaders of the overall (DiLuca), sprint (DiLica), mountain (DiLuca), and young jerseys (Lovkvist) remain the same.

Tomorrow's Stage Eight features a 204-kilometer route with two big climbs.