Team Sky’s Elia Viviani was awarded victory on stage two of the Tour of Britain after Edvald Boasson Hagen was stripped of his win in a controversial finish in Blyth.
Boasson Hagen (Team Dimension Data), beaten in a photo finish on day one, crossed the line in Blyth first yesterday but suffered more heartache as he was relegated for irregular sprinting.
Boasson Hagen had put on the leader’s green jersey on the podium before the decision was made.
Viviani had gestured to the Norwegian after crossing the line in second, feeling he had been impeded and – over 40 minutes after the stage finished – it was confirmed the Italian had won and taken the green jersey.
Boasson Hagen, a two-time Tour of Britain winner, had been released by lead-out man Mark Renshaw with just under 200 metres left of the 211 kilometres route and held off the challenge of Viviani and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo).
But Viviani and Groenewegen both immediately appeared to complain that Boasson Hagen deviated from his line. It was an explosive end to a day’s racing that had settled down quickly as a seven-man break formed early on after leaving Kielder Water and Forest Park.
Matt Holmes (Madison Genesis) attacked solo from the break with 20km left as the riders passed Blyth for the first time. The remnants of the break were soon caught but Holmes continued on his own until he too was swept up with under 14km to go.
Philippe Gilbert, a stage winner at all three grand tours in his career, tried his luck with a solo attack but with 5km to go it was all back together.
Boasson Hagen told Dimension Data’s website: “I know that I closed in Viviani but it wasn’t on purpose. I was just sprinting for the line with my head down and when I looked up I was too close on the left side with Viviani on my inside.
“It’s really a pity after all the hard work the guys did today. However, we will keep fighting and try to go for it again tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has been named in Britain’s long list of riders for the upcoming Road World Championships in Norway.
Froome, who is currently leading La Vuelta as he bids to become only the third man to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same season, has said he hopes to compete in the hilly individual time trial in Bergen.
Britain can choose from a 13-man long list which includes current British road and time trial champion Steve Cummings, and former world champion Mark Cavendish, who is participating in the Tour of Britain this week in a bid to prove his fitness after the shoulder injury which ended his Tour de France on stage four.
Also included are Adam Blythe, Mark Christian, Jon Dibben, Owain Doull, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Pete Kennaugh, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas. Britain will take nine riders to compete in the road race, and two to compete in the time trial.
The women’s squad is headlined by 2015 world champion and reigning national road champion Lizzie Deignan, although she will need to prove her fitness after having her appendix removed last week.
The world championships take place in Bergen, Norway, from September 17-24.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here