Love Bikes

The organisers of the Tour Down Under seem to think that handing riders a baby Kangaroo at the end of each stage is a good idea.

Tour de France, Stage 17. Norwegian fans celebrate another Boasson Hagen victory

Today - despite more moaning by the Schlecks - I’m going to focus on the stage win and on one, Edvald Boasson Hagen - Eddy the Boss, according to Geraint Thomas.

This is the young Norwegians second stage win of the Tour, and Norway’s fourth (Thor Hushovd with the other 2). EBH’s two victories are Team Sky’s total, ensuring a successful campaign for the British team, even if it might only have come at the expense of losing their GC contender, Bradley Wiggins.

So what about Eddy the Boss? He was in contention yesterday - narrowly missing out after he let Hushovd out-sprint him - and has been a regular feature in the breakaways since Wiggins’ departure. Pre-Tour de France, we were told that he was still recovering from a bout of shingles, but he seems not to have been affected by this and is becoming a real star of both this Tour, and of Team Sky.

Since he’s already won a stage, EBH has already featured on this “pic of the day” thing, so I thought I’d feature the Norwegian fans, hundreds of whom made the journey to Italy today, to revel in another Scandinavian victory.

Tour de France, Stage 6. Edvald Boasson Hagen takes his (and Team Sky’s) first ever Tour de France stage.

A couple of year’s ago, I took the day off work and drove to Newcastleton and then Gretna, to see a hundred cyclists fly past me in what felt like 3 seconds. It was a great day out! This was the Tour of Britain 2009, and the stage I saw was won by the ultimate victor HTC Columbia’s Edvald Boasson Hagen. Since then, I’ve always had a thing for the wee Norwegian.

Today’s stage was wet and - until the last couple of kilometers - fairly uneventful. The uphill finish meant that this was another finish for the rouleurs and Hagen was led out fantastically by his Welsh teammate Geraint Thomas.

Team Sky are an easy team to dislike; they have all the money in the World at their disposal and they seem, at times, to treat road events as anything but foremost in their minds - preferring to excel on track. That said, I can’t help but feel happy for Brailsford and the Sky team today.