Sutton sprints to victory in Poperinge

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Chris Sutton (Sky) sprinted to victory on stage two of the Tour de Wallonie Picarde in Poperinge on Friday. The Australian proved quickest in the bunch finish to fend off the challenge of Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) and Adrien Petit (Cofidis).

The breathless closing kilometres of the stage featured a late, lone attack from Taylor Phinney (BMC), but the American was swallowed up by the speeding peloton with 4km to race. In the finishing straight, Sutton timed his effort well to take the spoils ahead of Veelers and Petit, who was the silver medallist in the under 23 road race at the UCI World Championships last week.

"The team took the bull by the horns and really gave it some today for me," said Sutton. "It was just incredible and to finish off their beautiful work was amazing.

"It was just a perfect lead-out. Two Skil-Shimano riders wanted to box onto Mat Hayman's wheel and I just let them on. Russ [Downing] was just in behind me protecting me. He was going to come around at the last minute if we ran out of men but Mat was going like 10 men. Then we hit he pavé which is where he really excels and he just got quicker and quicker. The Skil guys went too early and I just got a perfect run.

"I haven't really thought about the overall I just wanted to win a stage here. I feel like I've got pretty good form off the Vuelta and then carried it on through the Worlds. I just want to keep the ball rolling."

The high-speed opening to the stage saw a nine-man break forge clear, featuring Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Quick Step), Kjell Carlstrom (Sky), Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Cyril Lemoine, Rony Martias (Saur-Sojasun), Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Tom Dernies (Lotto - Bodysol Pole Continental Wallon) and Gilles Devillers (Wallonie Bruxelles - Credit Agricole).

The peloton kept a tight rein on proceedings, however, and never let the gap climb much beyond the three minute mark. The aggressive Ignatiev and Carlstrom were the last of the escapees to yield, but they too were swept up with 20km to race.

Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) led Davide Viganò (Leopard Trek) and Yoann Offredo (FDJ) over the summit of the short climb Mont-Rouge Hôtel Belvédère Colette, but never succeeded in opening a gap on the bunch, and in spite of Phinney’s brief rally in the finale, it all came down to the bunch sprint.

Sutton’s fellow countryman Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) retains his overall lead ahead of the third stage. The Australians are tied on time overall with Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) in third on general classification at four seconds.

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