Brave Boasson Hagen takes Giro stage seven

CHIAVENNA, Italy (Reuters) - Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen powered away in the final straight to clinch the rainy seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia on Friday.

The Team Columbia rider, second on Thursday, came in ahead of South Africa's Robert Hunter and Russian Pavel Brutt.

LPR's Danilo Di Luca, the 2007 champion, kept the overall leader's pink jersey at the end of the 244-km stage from Innsbruck in Austria to the Italian town of Chiavenna.

Organisers decided to take the times for the overall standings with three kilometres to go because of the wet, slippery conditions.

Italian Di Luca was part of a large cluster of riders who were 40 seconds behind the leaders at this point. He remains five seconds ahead of Swede Thomas Lovkvist in the overall standings.

Seven times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, whose Astana team rode with the sponsor's name blanked out on their shirts in protest at unpaid salaries, dropped 18 seconds on Di Luca but remains in 25th place, 4:31 behind the leader.

After the peloton gradually wound in a group of four early escapees in a long, chilly climb, Italy's Alessandro Bertolini broke away on the descent only to be caught by Brutt and Hunter.

They were then joined by Boasson Hagen and another Italian Davide Vigano.

Bertolini made a break for it with 700 metres to go but was caught by the others and Boasson Hagen took the sprint with relative ease.

"I'm not really a sprinter but I can sprint if the group's not too big," the 21-year-old told Rai television at the end of his debut Giro stage win.

Saturday's eighth stage is another long one of 209 km from Morbegno to Bergamo.

The 100th anniversary edition of the race finishes in Rome on May 31.

(Writing by Paul Virgo in Rome, editing by Alison Wildey)

Article Published: 15/05/2009