Roth proved himself to be a real force in the break today, at all three intermediate sprint points he finished 1
st ahead of Sanikwathi and Wohler, if he could hold on to the peloton, if the break were to be caught, he would be high up in GC through the bonifications.
Meiji - Cannondale,
BelarusBank Pro Cycling and
Team Puma - SAP are the main teams riding on the front of the peloton today.
Quickstep have the race lead but they aren't doing too much pace setting.
Just as on stage 1, the break would be caught with 15 KM to go.
500 meters to go.
With no late attacks, a sprint will decide stage 2. There is plenty of interest with three distinct sprint trains being formed:
| Napolitano | Thorsen | |
| Modolo | Kankovsky | Bar |
| Lo Cicero | Cavendish | Giaux |
| Vantomme |  Goss | Ciolek |
|  Maksimov | |
| Vanderbiest |  Lavoine | |
Castaneda is also in the mix, the next riders on the road are
Nelson and
Serebriakov who are bit too far back to challenge for a top 5 today.
Napolitano comes charging forward to lead the race in a potent move which is somewhere between a late attack and a sprint. The other sprint trains can't cope with this, however,
Modolo also can't follow the wheel of the Italian.
Napolitano still leads with under 250 meters to go, however,
Lo Cicero,
Goss and
Vanderbiest are coming up fast.
Napolitano,
still, leads with under 200 meters to go. However,
Lo Cicero and
Vanderbiest look set to pass him,
Maksimov is the fastest on the road at the moment but he is a bit blocked in by those in front.
50 meters to go.
Lo Cicero finally overhauls his teammate and takes the lead, it is between him and
Vanderbiest for the win now.
Stage win
Lo Cicero. After stage 1 didn't go to plan
Meiji - Cannondale make amends today.
Napolitano, was sprinting for the best part of 500 meters and still managed to finish 7
th, highlights the strength of this team here.
Vanderbiest makes it two second place finishes in a row and, with
Vantomme down in 10
th, he will move into the race lead.
Maksimov was very fast in the final and finishes 3
rd, he will be confident of a stage win after such an effort.
Ciolek and
Goss round out the top 5 but they know they really want to be finishing on the podium in such finishes.
Roth manages, just, to hold on to the peloton and rises 4
th in GC thanks to those intermediate bonifications as the GC really starts to develop.
