Tour of Britain Stage 2: Reus wins on break and takes overall lead too

Dutchman Kai Reus won the second stage of this year's Tour of Britain from Darlington to Newcastle Gateshead on the break today and did so by enough of a margin to claim the overall lead in the General Classification too.

Reus was part of the day's pivotal break which contained yesterday's escaper, Topsport-Vlaanderen's Thomas De Gendt and AG2R's Tanel Kangert. The three got well clear of the chasing pack but with 35Km to go the pace proved too much for Kangert who was dropped by the other two. De Gendt had assiduously been hoovering up points in the sprint and the king of the mountain competitions so that when Reus made his move with 12Km to go, either by accident or design De Gendt did not respond, leaving Reus the relatively simple job of time trialling it to the finish.

His margin of victory was enough to give him the overall lead, relegating yesterday's stage winner Chris Sutton to second place. Edvald Boasson Hagen of Columbia-HTC moves up into fifth overall and finished third on the stage too, bested in the sprint for second place by his compatriot Alexander Kristoff (Joker-Bianchi).

Malcolm Elliot was the best placed of the domestic riders on the stage, finishing in 7th place in the same time as the chasing pack a result which also lifts him to 9th place on GC (he'd be first obviously if there were a vets category), while Russell Downing is currently the best-placed Brit on the GC in 6th place, 25 seconds down on Reus.

Top 20 Tour of Britain Stage 2

1) Kai Reus RAB Rabobank                        03:38:32
2) Alexander Kristoff TMB Joker Bianchi               09
3) Edvald Boasson Hagen THR Team Columbia-HTC
4) Martin Reimer CTT Cervelo Test Team
5) Danilo Napolitano, KAT Team Katusha
6) Michel Merlo BAR Barloworld
7) Malcolm Elliott CTV Candi-TV-Marshalls Pasta
8) Pierpaolo De Negri ISD ISD-Neri
9) Chris Sutton GRM Garmin-Slipstream
10) Pieter Vanspeybrouck TSV Topsport Vlaanderen
11) Davide Appollonio CTT Cervelo Test Team
12) Russell Downing CTV Candi-TV-Marshalls Pasta
13) Ian Wilkinson HAF Team Halfords
14) Reinier Hong VAC Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
15) Koldo Fernandez EUS Euskatel Euskadi
16) Graeme Brown RAB Rabobank
17) Kristian House RCR Rapha Condor
18) Federico Canuti CDF CSF Navigare
19) Alan Marangoni CDF CSF Navigare
20) Javier Aramendia EUS Euskatel Euskadi

Top 10 on General Classification after Stage 2

1) Kai Reus RAB Rabobank                      07:46:14
2) Chris Sutton GRM Garmin-Slipstream               16
3) Alexander Kristoff TMB Joker Bianchi             19
4) Michel Merlo BAR Barloworld 7h46'34"             20
5) Edvald Boasson Hagen THR Team Columbia-HTC       21
6) Russell Downing CTV Candi-TV-Marshalls Pasta     25
7) Mastring Reimer CTT	Cervelo Test Team	    26
8) Pieter Vanspeybrouck	TSV Topsport Vlaanderen
9) Malcolm Elliott CTV Candi-TV-Marshalls Pasta
10) Reiner Honig VAC Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team