Farrar repeats win and defends Eneco overall lead

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Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Slipstream continued his streak, as he won another mass sprint in the second stage of the Eneco Tour. The American out-sprinted Yauhuni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC).

The 25-year-old cemented his overall lead, after finishing second in the prologue and winning the first stage's final mass sprint, too.

The sprint was easy for Farrar, but most of the day was harder. “The heat made it very difficult today,” he said after the race. Nevertheless, “I did well on the climbs and was assisted perfectly underway by my teammates Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Sutton.

“Winning is fun, but there is more to come,” he said. “Of course it is nice that I can show what I can do here in the Eneco Tour, an important race for me and my team.”

Farrar did not think that he would be able to hold on to the lead in the upcoming Ardennes stage and the closing time trial. “But for the overall title we have Wiggins.”

His next race will be the Vuelta a Espana. “There will be sprints in the first 10 stages. I hope I can maintain my current form.”

Four riders were not at the start of the stage on one of the hottest days of the summer. Gorik Gardeyn (Silence-Lotto), Johann Offredo (Française des Jeux) and Sebastien Turgot (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) were all victims of the crash just metres before the finish line yesterday. The overall winner of the last two years, Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne), also did not start today, having come down with an intestinal infection.

Thursday's second stage was a rolling one across Belgium, 178.1km from Niel to Hasselt. It hit many familiar climbs, including the Muur van Geraardsbergen, but turned out to be a tough stage, with numerous riders dropping out. The most prominent victim was Astana's Andreas Klöden, who crashed on a roundabout and injured his wrist.

A group of five got away 18 km into the stage. Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank), Mathew Hayman (Rabobank), Tanel Kangert (AG2R), Jeremy Roy (Française des Jeux), and David Deroo (Skil-Shimano) were never able to build up a lead of more than two minutes.

Things fell apart as they hit the Muur with 76km to go. Sprinter Haedo had to drop back and was soon caught, although by this time the peloton had dwindled to about 80 riders.

Several riders tried to get away, and a group around Columbia's Edvald Boasson Hagen was successful. Maarten Tjalingii (Rabobank), Reiner Honig (Vacansoliel), Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) Mauro Da Dalto (Lampre) and Frank Hoj (Saxo Bank) worked their way up to the Norwegian, and all were eventually joined by four others, but Boasson Hagen, fourth overall, was too dangerous to the leaders. The group's lead never grew to more than 48 seconds.

Rabobank and Silence-Lotto led the chase. With 25km to go, Weylandt and Hoj got away again as the rest of the group was caught. The peloton caught them within a few kilometres, but the high speed splintered the group. Overall leader Farrar and second-ranked Tom Boonen (Quick Step) got caught in a following group, but were able to work their way back up to the front.

Joost Posthuma of Rabobank was the next to get away. Teammate Tjalingii joined him along with Boasson Hagen. The Columbia-HTC rider came into the stage in fourth place overall, only 10 seconds back, and had already picked up three bonus seconds underway.

Hoj and Nick Nuyens (Rabobank) bridged up to the three, and Nuyens took off in front. The others were caught with 3km to go, and Nuyens went into the last kilometre with a 20-second lead. But it wasn't enough to prevent a bunch sprint.