ToB: Borut Bozic beats Greg Henderson to give Vacansoleil second victory

Borut Bozic finally managed to take victory ahead of Greg Henderson in stage 7 of the Tour of Britain.

Bozic has been the bridesmaid on a couple of occasions this year, but this time the Vacansoleil rider had the legs on the Kiwi in Colchester on the uphill finish. However, the pair were a full three seconds ahead of third place man Richie Porte. The win now puts him just over a minute behind race leader Michael Albasini who has been suffering from illness for the past few days.

The Slovenian’s victory added to Wouter Poels’ on Tuesday means Vacansoleil now sit at the top of the team classification 6’15 ahead of Sky Pro Cycling. He will hope that the departure of his teammate Pim Lighart will not hamper his hopes of staying on the podium and possibly winning the yellow jersey on the final stage.



Today’s stage was a relatively flat affair but still had three third category climbs for the riders to contend with on their way from Bury St Edmunds to Colchester.

Murray and Jacobs breakaway
Tom Murray and Pieter Jacobs went off the front of the peloton after just 21 kilometres and managed to make 3 minutes the others before the two riders were slowly pulled in by Team Sky, who were on the front. Murray was the first to be taken by the Sky train with 25km to go; Jacobs held out for another 20km but the bunch was back together to compete in the final sprint.

The top four in the GC are now very close together and it’s anybody’s guess who will end up on the podium tomorrow. Henderson also moved in closer on the yellow jersey and is now only 1’16 behind, but he still remains in 4th place.

Johnny Hoogerland might be an outsider to stand on the podium in London tomorrow but the Dutch rider confirmed his victory in the King of the Mountains competition. As there are no mountain points to claim tomorrow there is no chance for second placed Richie Porte to haul back the 10 point gap.

London Finale
Tomorrow’s final stage will be ridden entirely around the streets of London for a 100km criterium finale. The circuit starts and finishes along Royal Albert Way in front of Newham Dockside and the riders will complete eight laps of the circuit.

Expect a lot of work on the front from Team Sky who will want to put on a good performance for their home crowd. Sky, who brought in a new kit for the tour, will be disappointed they haven’t won more stages and tomorrow will be the chance to make up for that.