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Bagdonas bags British win

credit: Andy Whitehouse
Image: Bagdonas: Made the day's break and finished it off perfectly (photo: Andy Whitehouse)

Gediminas Bagdonas took a surprise victory on stage seven of the Tour of Britain as a breakaway stayed clear into Sandringham.

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Boom maintains comfortable lead

Gediminas Bagdonas took a surprise victory on stage seven of the Tour of Britain as a breakaway stayed clear into Sandringham. The Lithuanian out-sprinted his fellow escapees as a group of six riders contested the finish after being allowed to build up an unassailable lead by the peloton. The AnPost rider narrowly edged out Ian Wilkinson (Endura) to notch up his sixth victory of the season and reward his Irish squad for a combative week of racing. With no riders deemed a significant threat to the general classification and leader Lars Boom (Rabobank) the group were given plenty of chance to build up a hefty advantage during the day. Despite the efforts of HTC-Highroad the gap would not come down quick enough and, realising their chase efforts were futile, the stage became a story of who could hold their nerve in the break. A win for Bagdonas denied British domestic squads of Endura, Sigma Sport and Raleigh the chance to take a first elusive victory at their home race.

Breaking free

The action kicked off in Bury St Edmunds with the peloton faced with the prospect of the longest stage in the Tour of Britain since 2004 at 200km. A test most felt would end in a bunch sprint, the peloton headed into increasingly bad weather as six men were allowed to move clear. Mathieu Claude (Europcar), Richard Handley (Raleigh), Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport), Stiyn Neirynck (Topsport), Bagdonas and Wilkinson built up an advantage in excess of seven minutes with the pattern for the day looking set. Rabobank patrolled the front of the bunch on behalf of leader Boom as wind and rain buffeted the bunch on the run into Norfolk. With a bunch sprint in the offing HTC-Highroad finally made their presence felt on the front, yet despite the gap decreasing the escapees still held an advantage of 3:20 with 20km to go, setting up a nail-biting run to the finish. A spate of punctures made life difficult for a peloton who were finally forced to admit defeat, sitting up on the run for home to allow the break their moment in the spotlight.

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