Tour of Britain Stage 7: Hagen claims his hat-trick

Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen grabbed his third win of this year's Tour of Britain today just edging out Matt Goss (Team CSC Saxo Bank) and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes). The 153Km run from Glasgow Green to Drumlanrig castle started in the rain which seemed to keep things fairly calm for the first 35Km. At that point Hagen and Goss lead an eight man break which had put over seven minutes into the peloton at 75Kms. However after the final descent of the day their lead had been cut to 2 minutes. With 3Km to go Cameron Meyer (South Australia.com-AIS) broke for the line but was hauled back by Greg Henderson (Columbia) which helped Hagen get to the front, once there his third win looked assured. And so it was. Hagen's efforts meant he ended the day in the green jersey as leader of the points competition – just reward for three stage wins. The positions at the head of the overall classification stay the same heading in to tomorrow's final stage with Agritubel's Geoffroy Lequarte leading the field from Great Britain's Steve Cummings by 6 seconds. Cummings attacked today, but all his efforts were chased down by the men from Agritubel. In the King of the Mountains competition Ben Swift (Great Britain) lost the polka dot leader's jersey to Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes. Everything looks nicely set up for tomorrow's final stage, the 110km run from Blackpool to Liverpool Results Stage 7 (Glasgow - Drumlanrig Castle, 153km):? 1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Team Columbia 3hrs 45mins 18secs? 2 Matthew Goss (Aus) Team CSC - Saxo Bank at same time? 3 Daryl Impey (SA) Barloworld at same time? 4 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) LPR Brakes - Ballan at same time? 5 Julian Dean (NZ) Team Garmin-Chipotle-presented by H30 at same time? 6 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Rock Racing at 0.05? 7 Cameron Meyer (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS at same time? 8 Greg Henderson (NZ) Team Columbia at 0.26? 9 Kristof Goddaert (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen at 2.18? 10 Roger Hammond (GB) Team Columbia at same time General classification after stage 7:? 1 Geoffroy Lequarte (Fra) Agritubel 25hrs 02mins 25secs? 2 Steve Cummings (GB) Barloworld at 0.06? 3 Daniel Martin (Irl) Team Garmin-Chipotle-presnted by H30 at 0.14 ?4 Gabriele Bosisio (Ita) LPR Brakes - Ballan at 0.15? 5 Ian Stannard (GB) Team Great Britain at 0.16? 6 Daniel Fleeman (GB) AnPost at 0.18? 7 Benny De Schrooder (Bel) AnPost at 0.19 ?8 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen at 0.28? 9 Emilien Berges (Fra) Agritubel at 0.40? 10 Russell Downing (GB) Pinarello RT - Canditv at 1.24