With a strong showing on yesterday's stage, taking a double victory after grueling 147 fast paced kilometres in a difficult hilly route, E. Hagen and J. Vastaranta have shown that they can compete with the best in the 2007 edition of the Croatian stage race the Istrian Spring Trophy.
Team Maxbo Bianchi's directeur sportif had this to say about today's stage;
"It's a quite flat stage with the only significant slope about 22 kms from the finish line. With Vastaranta and Hagen in their best shape now we are confident we can defend the leader's jersey and expect Vastaranta and Hagen to be frontrunners for the stage win today. We'll see if Hagen can give Vastaranta a leadout today, it would be nice to see Jukka win after all the hard work he has put down to help Edvald in the latest races!"
Early on the stage a break consisting of 10 riders was established, Maxbo Bianchi was present to police the break.
In a rather uneventful race the break was caught on the final slope which caused the peloton to split.
E. Hagen was clearly the leadout man today and pulled Vastaranta into a very good position and actually creating a small gap to the other trains, Lars Petter Nordhaug hangs on!
Can Maxbo Bianchi take an amazing tripple victory or will they explode as they get closer to the finish line?
E. Hagen starts the sprint and Vastaranta gets a perfect leadout and cruises to an easy victory today, however Boasson Hagen is close to being beaten by the other sprinters can he keep his legs going fast enough to get that 2nd place?
Boasson Hagen makes it, another amazing victory for Maxbo Bianchi.
"This is exceeding every expectation, we are on cruise control to an overall victory!" was the quick comment from Maxbo Bianchi's directeur sportif.
Stage Porec - Porec
1 Jukka Vastaranta TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI 4h24'06
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI s.t.
3 Gianluca Coletta CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD s.t.
4 Maurizio Biondo KIO ENE - TONAZZO - DMT s.t.
5 Jíri Hochmann ASC DUKLA PRAHA s.t.
6 Petr Herman TEAM SWIAG TEKA s.t.
7 Martin Prázdnovský TEAM SPAREBANKEN VEST s.t.
8 Marko Kump ADRIA MOBIL - KRKA s.t.
9 Dennis Pohl HEINZ VON HEIDEN - FOCUS s.t.
10 Adam Homolka TEAM SWIAG TEKA s.t.
11 Christian Lademann TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
12 Yauhen Sobal CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD s.t.
13 René Obst TEAM 3C - GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
14 Tobias Erler TEAM 3C - GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
15 Ivan Fanelli CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD s.t.
16 Aldo-Ino Ilesic PERUTNINA PTUJ s.t.
17 Michael Schweizer TEAM PZ - RACING AACHEN s.t.
18 Jure Zrimsek ADRIA MOBIL - KRKA s.t.
19 Tjarco Cuppens TEAM PZ - RACING AACHEN s.t.
20 Håvard Nybø TEAM SPAREBANKEN VEST s.t.
GC
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI 8h13'20
2 Jukka Vastaranta TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 13
3 Tobias Erler TEAM 3C - GRUPPE LAMONTA + 49
4 Matea Kvasina PERUTNINA PTUJ + 1'34
5 Yauhen Sobal CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD + 1'45
6 Lasse Bøchman GLUD & MARSTRAND HORSENS + 1'48
7 Jure Zrimsek ADRIA MOBIL - KRKA + 1'49
8 Mitja Mahoric PERUTNINA PTUJ s.t.
9 Timo Scholz TEAM NOTEBOOKSBILLIGER.DE + 1'50
10 Martin Prázdnovský TEAM SPAREBANKEN VEST + 1'51
11 Boris Shpilevski KIO ENE - TONAZZO - DMT s.t.
12 Gianluca Coletta CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD + 1'53
13 Blaz Furdi ADRIA MOBIL - KRKA s.t.
14 Maurizio Biondo KIO ENE - TONAZZO - DMT + 1'57
15 Blaz Jarc ADRIA MOBIL - KRKA s.t.
16 Anders Lund TEAM SPAREBANKEN VEST + 1'58
17 Björn Papstein TEAM 3C - GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
18 Petr Herman TEAM SWIAG TEKA + 1'59
19 Tjarco Cuppens TEAM PZ - RACING AACHEN + 2'05
20 Roy Hegreberg TEAM SPAREBANKEN VEST s.t.