Leigh Howard wins the second stage of the Tour of Britain 2012
Leigh Howard’s wait is finally over after the Australian claimed the second stage of the Tour of Britain, which is the first victory of his 2012 season.
The victory came at a perfect time right ahead of the UCI Road World Championships and will certainly give him a boost in confidence for the World.
The cyclist had to overcome the in-form Mark Cavendish, who was looking good till the final kilometres of the stage.
Reigning World Road Champion, Cavendish had to settle for the second position with Boy Van Poppel, Steele Von Hoff and Russell Downing occupying the third, fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
The Manxman is a pre-race favourite for the 2012 version of the Championships in Netherlands and restricting him is definitely an achievement for the Australian.
Howard was delighted after the victory and thanked his teammates for their continuous support throughout the race.
"I got a lot of help from my teammate Aidis Kroupis,” he noted. "Coming into the final kilometre we entered the park with one and half kilometres to go and knew we had to be top 5 or 6 going onto the park”.
“I had Cavendish’s wheel which was handy (laughs), and he played an interesting tactic by dropping off Luke Rowe’s wheel with 600m to go and fortunately I came round fourth wheel with 250m to go and from there it was a formality, and fortunately I had enough on him (Cavendish) in the end. To do it on his (Cavendish’s) home soil is extra special".
Pablo Urtasun of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi, Russell Hampton of Team Raleigh-GAC and Richard Handley of Team Rapha Condor succeeded during the 28.6, 51.1and 65.3 kilometre climbs of the race.
Boy Van Poppel of Team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling is leading the stage 1 classifications with a total time of 9 hours, 22 minutes and 4 seconds.
Leigh Howard of Team Orica-GreenEdge is at the second position with almost the same time, while Luke Rowe, Rony Martias and Mark Cavendish holding the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
Boy Van Poppel of Team UnitedHealthcare is leading the point’s classifications with 27 UCI points in his bag while Russell Downing of Team Endura Racing and Luke Rowe of Team Sky Procycling secured the second and the third positions.
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