Mareczko doubles up and moves into the lead

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Italy's Jakub Mareczko of Willier-Southeast claimed his eleventh victory of the 2016 season as he doubled up at the Tour of Taihu Lake to move into the overall lead after stage 2 in front of the monumental Moon Hotel known as a landmark for the Zhejiang province. In another bunch gallop under the rain, he outsprinted Emils Liepins of Rietumu-Delfin and his arch-rival Nicolas Marini from Nippo-Vini Fantini.

"Today's finale was different than yesterday's with a false flat finish, Mareczko explained, so we paid attention to not coming out of the box too early, otherwise we'd have risked to be overtaken in the last few meters. I'm very happy with this win because it gives back the leader's jersey I brought home last year and this was my only opportunity to get it this year as it is an uphill finish tomorrow. To reach eleven victories makes it a good year for me but there are more stages to come and hopefully more success for me at the Tour of Taihu Lake."

Already the most successful Italian rider by the numbers this year, Mareczko has Peter Sagan's total of fourteen wins in sight to equal the Slovakian superstar as the world's most successful pro cyclist of the 2016 season.

North Carolina's Martz Alder (Attaque Team Gusto), Slovakia's Jozef Palcak (Dukla Banska Bystrica) and Guillermo Corella (Start Vaxes) formed the breakaway of the day until 10km to go when Vitalii Popkov (Lvshan Landscape) tried his luck for the second day in a row.

"I noticed that Willier rode pretty hard to get the previous break back," most aggressive rider of the day Alder described. "They kind of sat up. Two guys went. I just followed. It became a group of six. We worked OK together till we got to the sprints. It took us time to really work together. I ended up attacking. We got a nice group going but it was pretty obvious that Willier would bring us back but you never know. It didn't start raining until we got caught. We were more hoping for a wind change but it just rained so we had no chance to succeed. However, this Tour of Taihu Lake is awesome: great organization and good hotels. I love it."

"I wanted to win but Mareczko is very fast," declared second placed Liepins. "If the finish line was ten meters further, maybe I could have won. My team is made of strong guys, so we led the sprint from far out and I would have liked the sprint to last even longer. We are two sprinters, Maris Bogdanovics and myself, we help each other. We decided only within the last kilometer who we'd sprint for today. I'm here looking for my first international victory."

While 24-year-old Liepins raised his profile, Marini was satisfied with one more podium placing after his second place in Wuxi. "It was a head wind to finish and we rode slowly so we were all fresh", the Italian noted. "It started fast but as soon as the breakaway was gone, Southeast and us controlled for a bunch sprint finish. I couldn't do any better today. Tomorrow I'll take it easy because it's an uphill finish, after that I'll try to win a stage."

Stage 3 from Anji Economic Development Zone to Tianhuangping is an unprecedented route at the Tour of Taihu Lake with an 18km long climb to finish at 860 metres above sea level. 

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