Alexander Kristoff fastest in bunch sprint to win stage 2 at Deutschland Tour

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Alexander Kristoff (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) held off Florian Sénéchal (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) in a reduced bunch sprint to take victory in Marburg, in stage 2 of the Deutschland Tour.

The three had a clear gap on the rest but Kristoff was the strongest and took the stage win, while Bettiol takes the red leader’s jersey from the previous leader Filippo Ganna, following an attacking day in the hills of Baden-Württemberg. Bettiol, Kristoff and Ganna currently occupy the first three spots on general classification, with all three sharing the same time overall.

Kristoff opened his sprint at the perfect moment, after Barnabás Peák helped to close down a late escape attempt from Trek-Segafredo’s Tony Gallopin, and he measured his effort to perfection, with Sénéchal and Bettiol unable to come past the veteran Norwegian, who picks up his second win of the month and his fifth of the season.

The peloton began the longest stage of the Deutschland Tour on a warm, cloudy day in Meiningen, the location of yesterday’s win for Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) on the first full road stage of the Tour. 

The day’s early break was four-men strong, and they remained out front for around 170km as light rain fell across the region. With 30km remaining, they were collected by the peloton, and the counter-attacks began, with a second breakaway group forming comprising five men including Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) and Nils Pollitt (Bora-Hansgrohe).

With the penultimate climb of the Hasenkopf approaching, that group was swept up by the bunch, with Ineos Grenadiers’ GC leader Adam Yates pushing the pace up the climb. It was enough to split the bunch, leaving a reduced group of around 30 riders at the front of the race.

As they approached the finish line in Marburg for the first time before beginning a 16km circuit of the town, another attacking group found a gap on the peloton. It included Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates), Lilian Calmejane (AG2R-Citroen), and Mauri Vansevanent (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), and others moved across to join them as the final climb of the day beckoned, the second category Marbach. 

The front group swelled to ten riders and they extended their lead up the climb, before seeing it disappear with 11km left to race as the bunch, led by EF Education-EasyPost, chased them down.

EF continued the charge up the final uncategorised climb, where 3 bonus seconds were on offer, and Alberto Bettiol was set up to take them but a late solo charge from Team DSM’s Romain Bardet saw the Frenchman poach the maximum points, with Bettiol finishing in second.

On the descent, the leading group stretched out but compressed once more coming into the final as a reduced bunch sprint was on the cards.

Trek-Segafredo’s Tony Gallopin attacked with just over a kilometre left to race, but he was closed down with Kristoff, Sénéchal and Bettiol leading the rest over the finish line.

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