Cyclingnews

September 13, Stage 2: Darlington - Newcastle Gateshead 153.3km

Reus races to a win in Newcastle Gateshead

By:

Gerry McManus

Published:

September 13, 2009, 15:06,

Updated:

September 13, 2009, 21:17

Solo win nets Rabobank rider GC lead

Photos

Kai Reus (Rabobank) emerged the worthy victor in the second stage of the Tour of Britain today. The 23-year-old Dutchman arrived into Gateshead only 15 seconds ahead of the bunch, but he had enough time to savour the moment as he crossed the finish line punching the air. This win is the latest installment of an amazing story of recovery for the former junior world road race champion who was in a coma for 11 days following a training crash in July of 2007.

Reus was jubilant in his victory as was team manager Erik Dekker, but Reus became emotional in the post-race interview and was unable to talk about his accident. Reus was the only survivor of a three-man breakaway group that had gone clear on the second categorised climb of the day at Langley.

"I only thought I would stay clear when there was a kilometre to go," said Reus. "Three of us went clear after about 40km, and we got a minute and a half quite quickly. When the gap went out to two minutes, we knew that we were riding to win. I lost Thomas De Gendt with 15km to go and the last 10km were tough for me. Now I am totally destroyed. This is my first victory in the last two years, and there is a long story behind that which I can't talk about now."

There is a possibility that the Dutchman will defend his yellow leader's jersey. "I think that stages six and seven will be tough," said Reus. "My legs are very painful now and we will see."

The peloton waited until it was over 500m past the neutralised section before Rapha Condor's Simon Richardson started the first attack of the day. A number of riders were very active in the early section including Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale), who made it into three consecutive breaks. Chris Newton (Rapha Condor) was also jumping around in the early kilometres going clear with Roche and Freddy Bichot (Agritubel).

Thomas De Gendt (TopSport - Vlaanderen) had promised that he would attack, and the sprint classification leader kept his word on the second categorised climb of the day at Langley. Tanel Kangert (AG2R La Mondiale) went with the Belgian rider, and Reus just made the junction to the duo as they approached the summit. The three riders worked well together and their leading margin was nearly four minutes at Highfield with De Gendt winning the prime at High Barns to add the king of the mountains jersey to his collection at the end of the day. The gap to the peloton was now over five minutes.

The weather had turned a bit wet and a number of riders came down in a crash including Roche. Columbia-HTC was on the front of the bunch intent on pulling back the leaders, and the margin was under three minutes when Reus won the final sprint prime at Seaton Sluice. Barloworld and Garmin Slipstream joined the chase effort and the leaders' margin began to plunge. Kangert was the first rider to slip out of contention and he was soon mopped up by the chasing peloton.

De Gendt finally lost contact with 15km to go when he lost the wheel of Reus on a roundabout and could not regain contact with the Dutchman who put his time trailing talents to good effect going clear to win the stage. De Gendt sat up as the bunch caught and passed him and Alexander Kristoff (Joker Bianchi) won the bunch sprint from Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) and Martin Reimer (Cervélo Test Team).

Reus now leads the race overall by 16 seconds from Chris Sutton (Garmin Slipstream) and a further three over Alexander Kristoff. Michel Merlo (Barloworld) leads the race on points and is in fourth place overall at 20 seconds.

Stage three from Peebles to Gretna is a small degree lumpier that the first two days with a rolling 154km course.

 

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