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Tour of Britain Stage Two: Leigh Howard take win for Orica GreenEdge and a share of overall lead

Mark Cavendish again denied this time right at the death

Leigh Howard of Orica GreenEdge thwarted Team Sky's Mark Cavendish at the end of the stage 2 of the Tour of Britain today to make it 0 out of 2 for the Manx Missile on the sprint stages of this year's race.

The Australian jumped clear at the death and managed to hold off Cavendish who had been guided to the front of the pack and lead out by Bradley Wiggins and yesterday's stage winner, Luke Rowe.

Initially it seemed that Rowe would keep the overall leader's gold jersey for another day but he was later adjudged to have been on the wrong side of a small split in the peloton and thus to have finished one second behind the winning bunch which meant a tie at the top of the overall classification with Boy Van Poppel of United Healthcare on the same time as stage winner Leigh Howard.

Things were less complicated in the other competitions where most of the other jerseys were divided between the riders who took their chance in today's break. Three British riders, Russel Hampton of Team Raleigh, Richard Handley of Rapha Condor Sharp and Node4's Peter Williams made the six man break that stayed away for much of today's 180.7Km stage from Nottingham to Knowseley. Of the three it was Node4's Peter Williams who was the big winner picking up the sprint jersey after winning all three of the stage's intermediate sprints.  His fellow escapee the Spanish rider, Pablo Urtasun of Euskaltel took all three of the day's categorised climbs to take the king of the mountains jersey.

With 50Km to go Jack Bobridge of Orica Greenedge attacked the rest of the break dropping all but Williams. However the sprinters were not to be denied and with Team Sky setting the pace at the front the pair sat up with 25Km to to.

As the field entered the final kilometres there were numerous attempted attacks but all came to nothing and as the Sky train moved smoothly in to place to deliver Cavendish to the line it seemed that the result would be as close to a formality as as a full on sprint at the end of a cycle race can be… and then there was one last attack and Cavendish was denied once again.

Stage Two, Nottingham to Knowsley, 180.7km

1) Leigh Howard, AUS, Orica GreenEDGE, 4:31:09
2) Mark Cavendish, GBR, Team Sky, same time
3) Boy Van Poppel, NED, UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling, same time
4) Steele Von Hoff, AUS, Garmin - Sharp, same time
5) Russ Downing, GBR, Endura Racing, same time
6) Sep Vanmarcke, BEL, Garmin - Sharp, same time
7) Wesley Kreder, NED, Vacansoleil - DCM, same time
8) Nathan Haas, AUS, Garmin - Sharp, same time
9) Sam Bennett, IRL, AN Post Sean Kelly, + 0.01
10) Luke Rowe, GBR, Team Sky, same time

Rouleur Combativity Award: Jack Bobridge, Orica GreenEDGE

IG Gold Jersey, General Classification

1) Boy Van Poppel, NED, UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling, 9:22:04
2) Leigh Howard, AUS, Orica GreenEDGE, same time
3) Luke Rowe, GBR, Team Sky, + 0.01
4) Rony Martias, FRA, Saur Sojasun, + 0.04
5) Mark Cavendish, GBR, Team Sky, same time
6) Russ Downing, GBR, Endura Racing, + 0.06
7) Steele Von Hoff, AUS, Garmin - Sharp, + 0.10
8) Sep Vanmarcke, BEL, Garmin - Sharp, same time
9) Nathan Haas, AUS, Garmin - Sharp, same time
10) Peter Hawkins, IRL, Team IG - Sigma Sport, same time

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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6 comments

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bikeandy61 | 11 years ago
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On the TV coverage Cav looked to freewheel at about 700m. He was on Luke Rowes wheel with no one ahead then looked to sit up and look round. Don't know if he had felt a wheel rub or if he was looking for a "better" wheel to follow. Certainly to me it looked like a sprint he lost rather than someone else had won.

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Morpheus00 | 11 years ago
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I was hoping for an analysis of what went wrong for Cav - "and then there was one last attack" doesn't really cover it. Unusual that the national dailys have more background info than RoadCC.

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Gkam84 replied to Morpheus00 | 11 years ago
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Morpheus00 wrote:

I was hoping for an analysis of what went wrong for Cav - "and then there was one last attack" doesn't really cover it. Unusual that the national dailys have more background info than RoadCC.

The way I saw it, Rowe blasted off the front to early for Cav's liking and he didn't want a sprint that far out.

So going round the corner, he knocked it off slightly. To get someone else's wheel. Which he did, but as it came closer to the line, He just didn't have the gas to come through and beat Howard. He later said that Howard was faster than him and well done.

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Tony Farrelly | 11 years ago
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Yep, we must have both been writing about that at the same time. Thanks for the heads up though Bhachgen

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Bhachgen | 11 years ago
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Luke Rowe tweeted that he has actually lost the jersey on "countback". Boy van Poppel takes it I think

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