Edvald Boasson Hagen wins Tour of Britain, final stage to Elia Viviani as André Greipel relegated

Edvald Boasson Hagen has won the 2015 Aviva Toue of Britain, the second time he has won the race following an earlier success in 2009. Sky's Elia Viviani won his third stage of the week after Lotto-Soudal's André Greipel, who crossed the line first in the final sprint, was relegated for deviating from his line.

MTN-Qhubeka rider Boasson Hagen started today's final stage in London 13 seconds ahead of Team Sky's Wouter Poels, and that remained the margin as the race finished at Piccadilly Circus.

Owain Doull of Team Wiggins completed the overall podium, moved third on GC through taking 2 bonus seconds at the day's first intermediate sprint, with his team mates driving the early pace including Sir Bradley Wiggins, to the delight of the huge crowds.

On a fast circuit that took the riders along Regent Street and the Strand via Trafalgar Square, it was Lotto-Soudal's André Greipel, winner yesterday in Ipswich, who raised his arms in triumph and seemed to have sealed a second successive stage win.

With the day's eight-man break reeled in on the last of the 14 laps, the German outsprinted Viviani on the line, but the result was quickly reversed with the stage awarded to the Italian.

Doull meanwhile won the Chain Reaction Cycles Points jersey and the Premier Inn Best British Rider prize, while the Skoda King of the Mountains and YodelDirect Sprint jerseys both went to Pete Williams of ONE Pro Cycling.

Reaction

Stage winner Elia Viviani of Team Sky

After yesterday I saw I had good speed in the legs after a really hard week, so we thought we could win today.[Ben] Swifty and Andy [Fenn] put me in a perfect position for the last corner. We saw the road go up and I knew we couldn't start the sprint too early.

When I saw Greipel go I went directly on his left-hand side. He came across a little bit, a little bit and that edged me towards the barriers. I'm disappointed because it is better to win without this. He is a big champion and I've never seen him do this before. But we won in London and that is the main thing.

This week has been really good with lots of stages over 200 kilometres," he added. "It has given me a very good base for the worlds and I am really confident. I think the Tour of Britain is the perfect roads for the worlds this year.

Lotto-Soudal's Andre Greipel, who was relegated

I didn't see Viviani coming. I was just concentrating on my sprint and suddenly he was next to me. The final straight wasn't that wide, I had to look for space to overtake. Everybody was on the limit on the final corner. I didn't do anything for purpose that's for sure. That's sprinting.

2015 Tour of Britain iwnner, Edvald Boasson Hagen

I'm very happy with that win. The object today was simply to defend the jersey and my team did a great job all day. Team Wiggins took it out very fast at the start looking for the intermediate sprint and seconds for their rider and it was very hard but then the race settled down a little.

I always like to race to win. I had my chances with Sky but perhaps I get more chances with MTN Qhubeka. I think perhaps this year it was harder to win the GC than back in 2009, the course was tougher and Sky were very strong.