Boom moves closer to win

Boom took his second stage win of the tour by outsprinting Alexandre Pichot (Europcar) and Leopold Koenig (NetApp) at the end of the 146km ride from Taunton to Wells.

He moves 28 seconds ahead of Koenig in the general classification, while Britain’s Daniel Lloyd (Garmin-Cervelo) is third at 29s back.

With three stages remaining, the Dutchman is unlikely to give up the lead as bonus seconds awarded for the stage win set him up nicely for Sunday’s short 8.8km time trial, a Boom staple.

"It was a difficult stage," Boom said on the Rabobank website. "I have to stay alert during the time trial but things are looking good.

"My form is good but without my team-mates I would have lost time early on. Today they were unstoppable."

Formerly second in the general classification, Team Sky's Geraint Thomas lost one minute and 24 seconds to slip out of contention.