Tour Team News: Edvald Boasson Hagen Second

Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen produced another fine performance to take second on stage three of the Tour de France as Bradley Wiggins maintained that same position overall.

The Norwegian rose to the head of the peloton again on a tough uphill finish into Boulogne-sur-Mer which saw Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) produce another virtuoso performance. A reduced bunch finish allowed overnight leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) to maintain his seven-second hold on the yellow jersey over Wiggins. The Brit, along with team-mates Chris Froome and Michael Rogers were held up behind a late crash but were handed the same time as the rest of the peloton on the day.

The stage was an action-packed affair with a quartet of categorised climbs in the finale producing some exciting racing which took its toll on the peloton. With 52km left to run what seemed a fairly innocuous crash saw huge disappointment for Team Sky as Kanstantsin Siutsou went down and became the first abandonment of the Tour with a fractured tibia.

Alan Farrell, Team Sky Doctor: “Kanstantsin has been forced to withdraw from the Tour de France after sustaining a fracturing left tibia after a heavy fall on today’s stage. He will now concentrate on making a full recovery.”

Sean Yates, Team Sky Sports Director: “It was a tough day. It’s the Tour and it’s always going to be hectic. Kosta was the victim today. We will miss him over the course of the next two-and-a-half weeks. When it gets to the pointy end of the race with climbs and those narrow roads everyone wants to be at the front. There are crashes at other races but at the Tour it always seems to happen that much more.”

“Eddy gave it his best shot at the finish but Sagan was on another level. He’s proven that once again. The main thing for us was that Bradley stayed upright and didn’t lose any time but we are sad to see Kosta go home tonight.”

Chris Froome was lucky to escape injury in the crash at the finish after partially vaulting the barriers on the frantic run to the line. He said: “Today was mayhem and towards the end everyone was fighting to be at the front of the bunch because that’s the safest place to be. You can’t have 200 riders on the front though and there were a lot of crashes as a result. We are a man down because of that and it looks like Siutsou’s broken his leg – that’s a big loss for us but in terms of the general classification, Bradley’s still safe so that’s one positive.

“As for my tumble at the end, I was trying to stay out of trouble but there was a Vacansoleil rider immediately in front of me and he went into the barriers and he took me with him. There was nowhere to go. Bradley was just behind me and he got caught up in it but thankfully didn’t hit the ground. Condition-wise, my legs are feeling great so I just want to get into the mountains now and away from these flat, nervous roads.”