Tour of Britain – Stage 7 – Sondre Holst Enger – I put all my power into my sprint to try and win, but I did not succeed –

The longest stage of the 2015 Tour of Britain ended with a classic sprint. The specialists in the discipline gave everything in the final straight, and the prize for the day went to André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal).  The photo finish confirmed the German’s 16th victory of the season by finishing just ahead of Elia Viviani (Sky) and IAM Cycling’s Sondre Holst Enger.  IAM Cycling had the pleasure of placing two men in the top-10 with Jonas Van Genechten taking an encouraging 8th place just one day before the stage race ends in central London.  The circuit race that suited the sprinters also smiled on the overall ambitions of Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN Qhubeka), who still holds the lead.

After giving IAM Cycling its 235th top-10 place, Sondre Holst Enger still kept his feet on the ground.  At just 22 years old, the great Norwegian hope will welcome his second podium of the season after having won his first race at the 1st stage of the Tour of Austria.  “The team really did a great job to put me in a position to be able to play for the win.  We were always at the front.  When the group formed for the final sprint, I got on Greipel’s wheel and Viviani was there, but it was a fairly technical sprint.  I put all my power into my sprint to try and win, but I did not succeed.  Nevertheless, I have to be happy with the podium.”

Kjell Carlström, directeur sportif for IAM Cycling along with Rubens Bertogliati, did not hide his pleasure when commenting about the day.  “I am very happy with this result even though we did not win, and of course only the victory really counts.  Initially this morning, we had to start without Roger Kluge because his wife is just about to have their first baby.  Then we had to take up our responsibility to control the break so that we could work for our sprinters.  Clement Chevrier and Stef Clement rode very hard.  I was sorry to see that Sondre could not find an opening before Greipel made his kick.  After that, it was too late to be able to catch back up to the German and Viviani.  For the circuit race around London, there will be a chance to win, and we will make every effort to help Jonas Van Genechten for that.  It would be magical to finish with a win.”