Stage 2 is another sprinter's stage. There is a late bump in the road that counts a category 4 KOM. Otherwise this is another straightforward affair.
Lilovski, Kuznetsov and Ariesen are off and the peloton seems happy with that. Interestingly we have the same 3 teams represented in the breakaway.
Stokbro tries to make two riders for BWT, but the peloton reacts to that move. No dice.
Kuznetsov wins the first intermediate sprint. The breakaway's gap has been at 4 minutes, but is now slowly dropping.
As yesterday the teams responsible for that are Volcanica, BNZ and Glanbia.
Kuznetsov doubles up on the intermediate sprints. The gap is down to 2'25'' with 54 km remaining.
The breakaway easily makes it to the KOM also and Lilovski shows he's clearly the best puncheur here. He'll be in polkadot tomorrow. 27 km to go, the gap is under 2 minutes now.
This is an even later catch than yesterday. Kuznetsov is about to be caught with 3.5 km left. The sprint trains are forced into early action.
This is the setup:
Villalobos
King
Barbero
Bennett
Prasad
Sbaragli
Boivin
Abdul Halil
Avelino
Keukeleire
Philipsen
Nielsen
Colbrelli
Vingerling
Keough
1.5 km to go we see the two trains have gone in different directions with others following. Bouhanni who is again poorly positioned is making a solo effort on the far right.
Volcanica takes over now with a gap. Barbero leading into the final km with Avelino next to him.
Boivin now launching with 650 m left. Avelino is ahead of him, but he's been in the wind for a while now.
Avelino is still in the lead with 300 m to go. Boivin in 2nd position, but watch out for race leader Vingerling who is again following Abdul Halil.
But there is only one man who deserves victory today. Guillaume Boivin wins stage 2! Perfect setup and perfect lead out. It's great to see everything work out when the correct riders are involved. You have to say Avelino was perhaps the strongest man today, he sprinted for pretty much a whole kilometer and still finished 2nd. Prasad just edges out a late charging Vingerling for 3rd.
 Vingerling remains in the GC lead on countback and has also put in a strong case for winning the points classification. Goes into tomorrow as the KOM leader and  Thijssen stays in white.
Tour of the Middle East - Stage 2 
