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Farrar loses lead at Eneco Tour
Columbia's Boasson Hagen takes over as Bak wins stage
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Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) took the leader's jersey from Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) after placing second in Sunday’s fifth stage of the Eneco Tour behind Lars Bak (Saxo Bank).
Bak made his dash for the line 5km out to edge Boasson Hagen by two seconds with Italian Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-N.G.C.) third.
Farrar missed out in the late breakaway and came in 30 seconds adrift to see Hagen pass him overall by 15 seconds following the 204.3km stage to Sirrard in the Netherlands.
Bak was among an 18-strong group, including Boasson Hagen, Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Maxime Monfort (Columbia-HTC), that broke away around 50km from the line and he proved to have the legs to see his challenge through to the finish.
"I am not a sprinter. I wanted to win it and knew if I was to do so I had to go for it well before the finish line. I really had to attack as the peloton came back strongly over the final 20 kilometers," said the 29-year-old Danish time-trial champion. "But I had my doubts right to the final meter.”
Monday's penultimate stage, a 163km ride from Genk in Belgium to the Dutch town of Roermond, is being tipped to finish in a bunch sprint.
The final stage on Tuesday is a short time trial, to which Boasson Hagen should be looking forward, according to team manager Tristan Hoffman.
"It's quite short and totally flat so it suits Edvald, but it's also a good distance for Tyler Farrar, and the riders are all very close, said Hoffman. "This race is going to go down to the wire, but we're in a good position."
Boasson Hagen, who this year notably won the Ghent-Wevelgem classic, paid tribute to his teammates for their work on Sunday.
"Now I've got a pretty good chance of winning, but I'll have to see how much energy I used up today. "I came close to victory last year but lost it when I got dropped in the crosswinds, and this year I want to get it right."
