Edvald Boasson Hagen finished sixth behind fellow Norwegian Thor Hushovd on the 13th stage of the Tour de France
Urán stays in top 20 after quiet day on the GC
Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen finished sixth behind fellow Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo) on the 13th stage of the Tour de France after featuring in the day's big break.
The 152.5 kilometres stage from Pau to Lourdes, which contained one huge climb up the hors categorie Col d'Aubisque, always looked likely to see a breakaway group dominate - and so it proved.
After numerous early attacks were foiled, 10 men finally got away after 57km and they included Hushovd, who wore the race leader's yellow jersey for much of the first week, and Boasson Hagen.
Also in the group, which had an advantage of more than four minutes at the top of the day's second climb, the category four Cote de Belair, were Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad), Dimitri Fofonov (Astana), Vladimir Gusev (Katusha), David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre), Jérôme Pineau (QuickStep), Jérémy Roy (FDJ) and Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank).
They extended the lead to around nine minutes but it was the ascent of the 1,709m Col d'Aubisque, the summit coming nearly 50km from the finish, which proved decisive as Roy, Moncoutié and Hushovd distanced their escape rivals to the tune of nearly four minutes.
Roy was a minute and 22 seconds ahead of Moncoutié cresting the top, with Hushovd a further 23 seconds back, but those gaps between the leading trio closed up on the descent before Hushovd and Moncoutié joined up on the run to Lourdes to further eat into Roy's advantage.
And Hushovd timed his attack to perfection heading into the holy town, leaving Moncoutié trailing in his wake with 3.5km remaining before swooping past a tiring Roy 2km from home.
Hushovd crossed the line 10 seconds to the good for his ninth stage win at the Tour, becoming the first world champion to win on cycling's biggest stage since Óscar Freire in 2002.
Moncoutié claimed second while Roy had to settle for third and the consolation of the polka dot jersey for the leading climber as well as the day's combativity award.
No change on GC
Boasson Hagen was five minutes and three seconds back in sixth, just behind Bak and Pineau.
With the leading contenders all rolling over the line together, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) remains in the yellow jersey, 1:49 ahead of Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek), with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) at 2:06 in third, Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) 2:17 in fourth and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) 4:00 adrift in seventh.
Also in the main bunch in Lourdes were Team Sky trio Christian Knees, Xabier Zandio and Rigoberto Urán, the last-named remaining 18th on the GC and third in the young rider standings behind Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ).
There were a couple more twists in the battle for the green jersey, with Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) jumping out of the main pack and crossing the line in 10th.
That more than made up for him missing out on the remaining points in the day's intermediate sprint after 82.5km.
The breakaway group hoovered up the majority of the points on offer before José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar) edged out Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) for 11th.
The latest standings see Cavendish on 264, Rojas on 251 and Gilbert on 240. Boasson Hagen is up to eighth on 105 after taking the 20 points for the uncontested intermediate sprint and a further 10 for his sixth place.
Frantic start
After the stage Sports Director Sean Yates admitted it was a shame the break took so long to be allowed clear, but was full of praise for winner Hushovd.
He said: "Thor’s on fire. He’s the last person you would have thought would win the stage today. He was obviously feeing good when he jumped away at the bottom of the Aubisque but I doubt that when he was caught by Moncoutie that he dreamt he would end up winning.
"We had Edvald in the break. The start went so quick today that the break didn’t end up going instantly but we’d made our minds up that we wanted either him or Simon in the break and it took a lot of effort. So that took the edge off Edvald I think and compromised his chances."
Despite the frantic start to the day Yates was happy the team persevered to get a man up the road, adding: "It’s either you gamble and try later or go. But if you miss the move then you’re nowhere. It’s just one of those things but Edvald did what he could.
"It was great team work by the guys to be across every single move but at the end of the day Thor was stronger. It’s just one of those things.
"For everyone else it was just about keeping cool and out of trouble. That was always going to be the case for the GC men."
Gerrans also admitted it had been a tough start to the stage, saying: “Today both myself and Edvald has been told to try and get in the breakaway because this was the first real stage where everyone expected it to survive until the finish. We did everything we could to get in the move and that meant covering as many attacks as possible until it got away.
“It was a really hard start to the day because every team had the same idea. There were constant attacks during the first 55km. Fortunately though Edvald had the legs just at the right time and was able to get in there.
“Once the break had gone it was just a matter of conserving my energy for the coming days and finishing inside the time limit. We all appreciated the chance to relax after a hard day yesterday.”
