Boom time as Dutch rider secures his second Tour of Britain title

Dutchmanlarsboomsecured his second Tour of Britain title as Edvald Boasson Hagen won the race’s final stage in Cardiff.

Team Lotto Nl-jumbo rider Boom finished in the peloton to ensure his overall victory by eight seconds from Norway’sboassonhagen,whohad moved ahead of Switzerland’s Stefan Kung, two further seconds behind.

Boasson Hagen, of Team Dimension Data, finished the 180-kilometre eighth stage from Worcester in four hours and 19 minutes after breaking away in the final 3km.

The highest-placed Briton was Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas, who came seventh, while Mark Cavendish abandoned on the final day in his first race since being forced to pull out of the Tour de France following a crash.

Belgian Victor Campenaerts of Team Lotto Nl-jumbo and Poland’s Michail Kwiatkowksi,

0 Lars Boom: ‘Great feeling’ also of Team Sky, completed the top five of the general classification.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Boom, reflecting on his second overall win in the race following his 2011 success.

“I didn’t expect today to be that hard but with the intermediate sprints and then some really tough climbs in the beginning it was really hard.”

Boom had to resist the elements as well as the attempts of his general classification rivals to seal the overall victory as wind and rain battered the peloton on its way through the Welsh Marches to the finish line in Cardiff.

The race had exploded into life on the opening king of the mountains climb at British Camp in the Malvern Hills and continued that way until the final metres of the Cardiff circuit, before Boasson Hagen surged to the stage win.

“It feels good to finally get this victory,” said Boasson Hagen. “We had a plan from the beginning of the day for me to try to attack with two or three kilometres to go.”