Francisco Ventoso (Carmiooro-NGC) won the second stage of the Ster Electrotoer between Eindhoven and Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The Spaniard outsprinted Australian Graeme Brown (Rabobank), whose team had so dominated yesterday’s stage 1 time trial, and Frenchman Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) at the end of the 146km stage.
The almost entirely flat parcours of the stage made a bunch sprint virtually inevitable, but a small climb with 19km to go offered a chance to a late breakaway.
The stage began with the almost inevitable early breakaway escaping after less than 10km. Arnoud van Groen (Vacansoleil), Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet) Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen), Marco Bandiera (Katusha), Cornelius van Ooijen (Jo Piels) Jack Vermeulen (Van Vliet EBH) were the six riders allowed to get away by the peloton. They worked together well and midway through the stage, with 70km to go, they held a lead of 5’25”.
The Milram team sent Dutch veteran Servais Knaven to the front of the peloton and the gap began to reduce. He was relieved by the Rabobank team of race leader Jos Van Emden with 55km to go as the group ahead began to split up.
As the break crossed the finish line to start the 34km finishing circuit Van Ooijen and Van Groen distanced the other four. They were rejoined by Vanspeybrouck and Bandiera but it spelled the inevitable doom of the breakaway. The lead was now less than 1’30” and the sprinters’ teams were amassing at the front.
HTC-Columbia, Saxo Bank and Team Sky all put riders into the chase and the breakaway riders were caught with 17km to go. The pace was kept high all the way to the finish, preventing any more escapes, and Ventoso took the sprint by more than a bike length.
Ventoso’s lowly place in yesterday’s time trial means that the ten second time bonus is not enough for him to depose race leader Van Emden. Brown’s six seconds for second place leapfrog him into 4th place and, with Saxo Bank’s Alex Rasmussen losing 45 seconds after pulling on the front of the peloton, the orange team now occupies the top five positions in the overall standings.
Result stage 2
1. Francisco Ventoso (Spa) Carmiooro-NGC
2. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
3. Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil
4. André Greipel (Ger) HTC-Columbia
5. Lucas Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank
6. Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step
7. Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano
8. Adam Blythe (GBr) OmegaPharma-Lotto
9. Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team Katusha
10. Tom Veelers (Ned) Skil-Shimano
Standings after stage 2
1. Jos Van Emden (Ned) Rabobank
2. Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank @ 3s
3. Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank @ 7s
4. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank @ 9s
5. Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank @ 10s