Tour of Britain: Matteo Trentin wins as Edvald Boasson Hagen gains time
Last Updated: 11/09/15 5:48pm
Edvald Boasson Hagen extended his overall lead of the Aviva Tour of Britain by finishing second to Matteo Trentin on stage six in Nottingham.
Trentin (Etixx - Quick-Step) formed part of the day's six-man breakaway but later moved into a lone lead and although Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) caught up with him following an attack out of the peloton, the Italian prevailed in a sprint finish.
The main bunch, which contained second-placed Wout Poels (Team Sky), finished four seconds later. Mark Cavendish (Etixx - Quick-Step) was not present, having crashed out of the race earlier in the day.
Boasson Hagen picked up four bonus seconds for finishing second and also collected two seconds at an intermediate sprint, which means his lead stretches from one second to 13 going into the race's final two stages this weekend.
He said: "It was really hard at the start. It was split to pieces, the whole group. Sky did a good job to control for Wout; I was alone in the peloton so couldn't do much.
"I made an attack at the end and I got second again, but I am happy to keep the jersey after this hard day."
Trentin entered the final 10km alongside Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Stefan Kung (BMC Racing) and Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal), but then attacked with 6km to go.
The peloton was just over 30 seconds behind, but with Team Sky tiring after a long day of pace-setting, Boasson Hagen capitalised on a small split at the nose of the bunch by attacking with just over 3km to go and quickly caught up to Trentin.
The Norwegian continued to set a strong pace all the way to the final 500m, which allowed Trentin to sit in his slipstream and sprint past him in the final 100m.
The Tour of Britain continues on Saturday with a 227.1km seventh stage from Fakenham to Ipswich. Follow the action with our live blog from 2pm.
Stage six result
1 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx-Quick-Step, 4:45:27
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) MTN-Qhubeka, same time
3 Owain Doull (Gbr) Team Wiggins, +4
4 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx-Quick-Step, same time
5 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Soudal, st
6 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Team Cannondale-Garmin, st
7 Alex Peters (Gbr) Great Britain, st
8 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC-Racing, st
9 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) An Post-Chain Reaction, st
10 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, st
General classification
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) MTN-Qhubeka, 27:47:54
2 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, +13
3 Rasmus Gulhammer (Den) Cult Energy, +43
4 Owain Doull (GB) Team Wiggins, +44
5 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC-Racing, +51
6 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx-Quick-Step, same time
7 Ruben Fernandez (Esp) Movistar, st
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st
9 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) An Post-Chain Reaction, st
10 Chris Anker Sorensen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo, st
