We're back in Denmark for the second stage of the Post Danmark Rundt. Yellow jersey wearer Peter Kennaugh will fancy his chances once more as the day looks rather flat. However we have a few more hills in the mix today as we will also see a rider being awarded with KoM Jersey after today.
Yellow jersey wearer Peter Kennaugh took his second stage win in the history of the Tour of Denmark yesterday.
Yesterday's stage saw a lot of attackers trying to get away in vain from the outset. The forming of today's TV break went down a whole lot smoother though. Sergey Chernetskiy was the first to attack and he was initially joined by Lasse Norman Hansen and the Austrian Champion Daniel Schorn
They would be joined by Wen Hao Li though as the break of the day had already gone clear!
The Austrian Champion Schorn is a fast rider and he showed that in the first intermediate sprint where he denied Wen Hao Li to second and Chernetskiy to third place.
Back in the pack Vueling was controlling the front for race leader Kennaugh but also Rothaus were out in numbers clearly made confident by Vantomme's final burst in yesterday's finale.
With about a 100 kilometres to go we have our first crash! Jerome Giaux goes down!
The pack is not high in the pack yet though with the gap to the escapees now up to 6'44, so Giaux has no problems making his way back. Good news for the team's sprinter Kreder!
A golden opportunity now arises for one of the breakaway riders as we approach the first KoM Sprint of the race. Strangely though it's not contested as Schorn rolls over first, followed by Chernetskiy and Li.
Schorn is also the fastest in the final points sprint of the day as Hansen takes second ahead of Li.
The pack is already going strong though and has cut the deficit in half as only 45 kilometres remain. The gap is now at 3'24 and coming down.
The second KoM Sprint is not contested either and this time Li takes it ahead of Schorn and Hansen. This means that Schorn has tallied 8 points making him the KoM Jersey wearer in the Queen Stage of the race tomorrow.
The pack is not far off now though as we have just 17 kilometres left of today's stage!
As we get into the city of Aarhus where the finish line is today we get another crash. Luckily only two riders are involved and not likely to have played any role in the GC anyway as Lilholt and Cimolai goes down.
There's 13 kilometres left and the break still holds a lead of 1'04, maybe we have a surprise on our hands?
Chernetskiy does try to put in a final dig but it doesn't work the pack comes strongly in this phase and closes the gap quite quickly. We have a mass sprint!
Today it's airBaltic who are swarming the front! This is looking good for Rowe! Vantomme is in his wheel and Manan is also very well positioned just tucked in behind. Kennaugh is a little way back and it doesn't look like he can near the front as the sprint begins. Mitch Docker is the first to launch with Rowe in his wheel. Heinrich Haussler is also sitting nicely!
Rowe now launches and goes past Docker with Vantomme just behind as the closest to him! Manan is the Meiji rider in the periphery.
Here comes Maxime Vantomme, he goes past Rowe! Haussler and Manan are also flying up from behind. Can they catch the Belgian?
They cannot! Maxime Vantomme wins the second stage!
Haussler grabs second place with a strong sprint and notice how Kennaugh has come from behind to take the eight boni seconds for third place and hence defend his leaders jersey.
Cimolai and Lilholt loses 11'52 on the day but that won't have their teams worried. Daniel Schorn takes the KoM jersey but he has got to be on the lookout tomorrow if he wants to defend it!
