• Tour of Britain, Stage Seven

Urtasun too strong in Dartmouth

ESPN staff
September 15, 2012
Pablo Urtasun savours his stage win © PA Photos
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Pablo Urtasun produced a superb sprint finish to claim Stage Seven of the Tour of Britain, as Jonathan Tiernan-Locke retained his leader's gold jersey.

The race hit the roads of Devon and the West Country crowd were treated to the sight of a couple of big-name riders on the front. Ivan Basso, a two time winner of the Giro d'Italia and Samuel Sanchez - winner of the 2008 Olympic road race and third in the 2010 Tour de France - got themselves in a breakaway.

The group was whittled down to four for the final 15 kilometres and it was the Euskaltel squad who came up with the winning tactic on the run into Dartmouth.

Sanchez was happy to play second fiddle to his lesser-known team-mate Urtasun as he led him out for the final sprint. He did a fine job, as he forced Marc de Maar to commit earlier than he would have wanted and Urtasun came over the top in the final 100 metres.

British rider Tiernan-Locke showed his legs are still strong as he forced the pace in the peloton in the final 10 kms. His pace distanced his closest rival on general classification, Leigh Howard, and he came home in the main bunch to retain his lead.

The race concludes in Guildford on Sunday and Tiernan-Locke holds an 18-second lead over Nathan Haas with Damiano Caruso a further five seconds adrift.

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