Boasson Hagen in leading pack

Edvald Boasson Hagen
12 April 2012

Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen was in the 10-man break as the Tour de France continued in the Pyrenees on Friday.

After numerous early attacks were foiled early on the 152.5-kilometre 13th stage from Pau to Lourdes, Boasson Hagen was joined in the escape by fellow Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo), the world champion who wore the race leader's yellow jersey for much of the first week.

Also in the escape, which began after 57km and had an advantage of more than four minutes at the top of the day's second climb, the category four Cote de Belair, were Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana), Jerome Pineau (QuickStep), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), David Moncoutie (Cofidis), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre), Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) and Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad).

Boasson Hagen claimed Team Sky's first Tour stage win on stage six, while the 24-year-old from Norway is sharing a room with Geraint Thomas, who was prominent in Thursday's stage 12 escape.

However, the 13th stage included the hors categorie (beyond category) ascent of the Col d'Aubisque, where the race could be shaken up further, before finishing in the holy town of Lourdes.

The day's intermediate sprint took place in Bielle after 82.5km, with 70km remaining. The escapees - including Petacchi, last year's winner of the points classification's green jersey - did not contest the sprint, with Boasson Hagen rolling over the line in first place for 20 points.

The Team Sky rider moved up to eighth on the points ranking as a result. With 10 riders in the breakaway, the leading rider in the peloton would claim five points at best.

Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) made an early dash for the line, but HTC-Highroad, riding for maillot vert incumbent Mark Cavendish caught and passed the Belgian.

Cavendish's HTC-Highroad team kept him in position as the sprint approached but the Manxman had to settle for 12th place and four points, after Jose Joaquin Rojas finished 11th.

Rojas worked in combination with team-mate Francisco Ventoso to beat the Briton. The Spaniard now lies on 247 points, with Cavendish 17 points better off on 264. Cavendish waved his hand in protest after believing he had been squeezed to the side of the road by the two Movistar riders.

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