Henderson takes second stage, overall lead of Tour of Britain
The 160km stage two of the Tour of Britain, held in Stoke-on-Trent on Sunday, included two category-one climbs but still finished, like the first stage, in a bunch sprint. Team Sky, the local heroes, took the stage win in the hands of Greg Henderson, who also took the leader’s jersey from the stage one winner, Andre Greipel.
"I had a fantastic team with me, they rode the front for me right the way through to the line," said Henderson.
The majority of the stage was characterized by an 18-rider breakaway which formed 10 miles into the race. Henderson was supported in the breakaway by two British teammates, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas. The peloton eventually shortened the gap to below 30 seconds and shrunk the breakaway to 13 riders, but never caught the group which included Michael Albasini and Heinrich Haussler, who would go on to round out the podium behind Henderson. Koen De Kort Skil and Patrick Sinkewitz made a total of five riders finishing in the same time as the stage winner, with the remaining eight breakaway riders finishing three seconds later.
"I knew the finish from a couple of years ago so I waited and waited for as long as possible,” said Henderson. “No one had come with 300 metres to go so I just jumped as hard as I could knowing that I could open up a gap, and I just held that to the line. It’s a nice treat to be in the yellow jersey and we'll have a go at defending it.”
Wiggins and Thomas fell out of the breakaway after setting up Henderson and finished 1:16 and 1:48 behind their teammate, respectively, while the peloton finished over ten minutes behind. Richie Porte, of Saxo Bank, was part of the three-man breakaway in the first stage and the 18-man in the second, and his attacks on the climbs of both have earned him the king-of-the-mountain jersey. Johnny Hoogerland, who finished in eighth, won the most-aggressive-rider award for the stage.
"It was difficult today, not what I expected - I wanted to take it easy until stages 4 or 5 because these are heavy stages. But I saw a group of 16 to up the road so I went. It was a very, very hard stage,” said Hoogerland. “I think it is between 10 riders, and I think it is difficult for Henderson to keep the yellow jersey because he's good on hills but we are getting some very, very steep hills so I think it’s very difficult for him."
Tags: