Marcel Kittel claimed the second stage of the Tour de Wallonie-Picardie 2012
Marcel Kittel of Team Argos-Shimano wins the second stage of the Tour de Wallonie-Picardie after his tremendous performance during the event.
The 24-year-old opened his 2012 winning account with a first place finish at the Scheldeprijs and also occupied the top podium spot at the Omloop van het Houtland 2012.
He bagged two stages at the Ster ZLM Toer, Tour of Oman and the Eneco Tour and a stage each at the Etoile de Besseges, Three Days of De Panne and the Eurometropole Tour 2012.
The cyclist made full use of his tremendous form and completed the 178.5 kilometre chase to Poperinge in a total time of 4 hours, 13 minutes and 50 seconds.
Nacer Bouhanni of Team FDJ-Big Mat, Aidis Kruopis of Team Orica-GreenEdge, Jurgen Roelandts of Team Lotto Belisol and Michael Van Staeyen occupied the second, third, fourth and fifth positions in the respective order.
Stijn Neirynck of Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator, Loic Desriac of Team Roubaix Lille Metropole, David Boucher of Team FDJ-Big Mat and Justin Van Hoecke of Team Wallonie Bruxelles-Credit Agricole formed the first break into the race and took a lead of
over 5 minutes.
However, the quartet was caught by the peloton in the final 50 kilometres of the race but two out of four cyclists were awarded for showing their exceptional riding skills during the race.
Boucher received the most combative award while Neirynck was given the King of Mountain Jersey after the stage 2 mountain classifications.
Kittel claimed 25 UCI points during the stage and holds the top spot at the point’s category of the race.
Nacer Bouhanni fell 5 points short at the second spot with Aidis Kruopis, Jurgen Roelandts and Michael Van Staeyen occupying the next three positions with 16, 14 and 12 points respectively.
Top ten finishers after the stage 2 of the Tour De Wallonie-Picardie are as below,
1
Marcel Kittel (Ger) Argos - Shimano
4:13:50
2
Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
3
Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Orica-GreenEdge Cycling Team
4
Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
5
Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
6
Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
7
Steven Caethoven (Bel) Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's
8
Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Sharp
9
Andrew Fenn (GBr) Omega Pharma - QuickStep
10
Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
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