Just one day after the stunning finish on Hartside the Tour of Britain greeted the riders with another tough profile. The 192 kilometers from Stoke-on-Trent to Nottingham were everything but flat. In the end Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep) outsprinted Edvald Boasson Hagen for the stage win. The 2nd place finish was enough to extend his lead in the overall standings.

The stage started off fast with Sky putting on a fast pace. The British World Tour outfit went into the stage sitting 2nd in the GC. Yesterday’s stage winner Wout Poels was just one second behind Edvald Boasson Hagen before the stage.

Even though Sky tried hard to set Poels up for the first intermediate sprint, it was Boasson Hagen who took the bonus seconds. After that a lead group with Spaniard Ion Izaguirre opened up a gap over the Sky-lead group in which Boasson Hagen rode watchful.

With his teammates being dropped he waited until the final kilometers. By then Trentin had attacked the lead group and Boasson Hagen was the only one who managed to bridge across.

The Norwegian national road race champion leads Poels now with 13 second. Third in the overall is Rasmus Guldhammer (Cult Energy).

“It was a hard stage. I am happy that I could defend the jersey. When we were about to catch Trentin I jumped across. It was good to get a gap to the others so I kept on pulling hard to the finish. We have two more stages to go until the end and I hope to keep the jersey,” Edvald Boasson Hagen.

It was a really hard day but I am happy with that result. I would have happily settled for that before the start of the stage. Sky applied the pressure and eventually the break went and when Stannard came back I had to try and cover the moves and hope for the best. 

"Stannard asked me to ride at one stage and that is natural of course but I didn't want to do that before the final intermediate sprint because I could have lost time there or they could have attacked me there. I wanted to wait as long as possible before I started to work but it was always my plan to try something about five kilmoetres out. I looked over and Wouter seemed to be on his own so I went.

"I didn't feel my form was that good at the start of the race but it feels like it is getting better every day now. We will see tomorrow for sure. A lot of people are very tired although perhaps the riders in the grupetto are not quite so tired. I need to stay focussed for two more days now and hope that the team have been saving a lot of energy for the long day tomorrow."