Edvald Boasson Hagen is rapidly turning into one of the best riders of his generation, and I’ve gotta say, I love watching him win. Today’s Giro stage was a quality addition to his palmares, especially given the conditions and the presence of Robbie Hunter, one of the better sprinters in the pro peloton, in the final selection.
EBH played it cool, dropping the tempo to a crawl as he ended up on the front of the paceline, and then letting his breakaway companions chase down the inevitable attack. His jump at 120 meters to go was authoritative, giving him several bike lengths practically before the others could react.
Hunter might have given the Norweigan a run for his money, but he set up on what was obviously the wrong wheel. Not that I could have done any better in Hunter’s place, but it would have taken a lightning bolt to keep me off Boss Hogg’s wheel in the finale of this stage.
Good call on Boss Hogg’s tactics…….but I don’t think Hunter still qualifies as one of the best sprinters in the peleton anymore. Even with my antipodean bias, he was only ever a 2nd tier guy (IMHO) Keep up the good work. We are stuck with some guy called Paddy Agnew giving us garbled commentary in our 10 minute highlight show here in Oz.
I liked EBH’s win, but I liked his victory salute even more – that awkward flapping of the arms in the air reminded me of one of those inflatable tubes-with-arms that you see in front of car dealerships. He looked young and joyous and unpretentious.