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Boasson wins Benelux sixth stage

By Agence France Presse
Published: Aug. 26, 2008

Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen of the Columbia team won the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tour of Benelux here Tuesday, as German team-mate Andre Greipel held the overall race lead.

Boasson won a sprint finish ahead of France's Jimmy Engoulvent and Serguei Ivanov of Russia.

Wednesday's final stage is an 18km time-trial around Mechelen.

In Tuesday's stage, a nine-rider breakaway looked set to fight out the finish but Columbia did a lot of work to chase the riders and then Hagen jumped past late attacker Jimmy Engoulvent within sight of the finish line.

Greipel finished just behind in fourth place, in the same time as Hagen, to retain the overall lead.

Hagen had hoped to challenge for overall victory and was always close to the lead after the prologue. He became virtual race leader on stage five after taking a time bonus, but then lost more than 14 minutes and any chance of overall victory when the peloton split in strong cross winds.

His stage victory Tuesday made up for some of the disappointment.

“This is kind of revenge for what happened yesterday,” Hagen said.

“It was a real pity to lose so much time and so any chance of overall victory. I took the sprint and became leader on the road but then I went a bit too far back in the peloton and they attacked at the front. I tried to chase but it was impossible and so I lost a lot of time.”