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Tour of Britain 2018: Stage 2

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 Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 2 of the 2018 Tour of Britain. It might only be the second day but already we're looking at one of the toughest days of the race, with three categorised climbs and several more besides. Race leader André Greipel will have some job on his hands if he wants to keep his green jersey tomorrow.

Today's stage runs through Devon in the south-west of England, 174.9km from Cranbrook to Barnstaple. There's climbing from the very start – before the official start, even. 

André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) triumphed on stage 1 in Wales yesterday. The German bested Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) in the sprint finish in Newport after a hectic run-in that saw the Quick Step duo of Julian Alaphilippe and Bob Jungels go on the attack.

Here's the general classification going into the stage. It's likely to be all change today, considering the day's route.

And we're off! There's a 7.4km neutralised section to start with. The first climb of the day – Chineway Hill comes after just 6.7km of the stage proper. It's a second category climb, measuring 2.8km at an average of 5.5%.

There's been a crash in the neutralised zone. Miles Scotson (BMC) and Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo) are involved in a touch of wheels along with a Great Britain rider. The start proper has been held up slightly while the trio get back up and running.

The peloton have now been stopped altogether as we wait for the crash victims to rejoin them.

174km remaining from 174km

British Continental teams One Pro Cycling, JLT-Condor and Canyon-Eisberg are prominent at the front of the peloton, no doubt looking to make the break of the day.

Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) has gone off the front on the climb. He's riding with his arms draped over bars, powering away with a JLT-Condor rider on his wheel.

169km remaining from 174km

Jonathan McEvoy (Madison-Genesis) is now off the front. Several riders have gone with him as they near the top of the climb.

It looks like that group will be let go by the peloton – they have a decent gap now.

Scott Davies (Dimension Data) is one of the men out front. He's pushing on alone and gets 8 points over the top – clearly he's protecting teammate Nic Dlamini's KOM jersey.

7km remaining from 174km

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Here's confirmation of the top five to take KOM points at Chineway Hill:

159km remaining from 174km

The peloton seems to have calmed down now. It looks like the five men out front will be our break of the day.

155km remaining from 174km

The riders are climbing again. Check the profile for that unclassified climb early on – that's where we are now. It may not be classified but it looks just as tough as the second category climb that started the day.

Quick Step Floors DS Brian Holm has been speaking on the phone to British channel ITV4. The Dane talked about the finish of stage 1 before going on to praise Julian Alaphilippe, who attacked along with Bob Jungels on the late climb.

Four of the riders in today's break finished in the peloton yesterday and are 10 seconds down on race leader Greipel. Rowsell, meanwhile, lies 116th overall at 4:57.

146km remaining from 174km

Unsurprisingly, Lotto-Soudal are taking the lead at the front of the peloton. They're obliged to do so with their man André Greipel in the green leader's jersey.

143km remaining from 174km

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Cameron Meyer is the most accomplished man in the break. The Mitchelton-Scott man is a 13-time world track champion, won the Tour Down Under in 2011 and also has two stage wins at the Tour de Suisse under his belt, in 2013 and 2014. Earlier this year he became points race world champion at the World Track Championships in Apeldoorn.

125km remaining from 174km

There's 1km to the first intermediate sprint of the day. Meyer leads the break into Tiverton.

123km remaining from 174km

That'll be a 3 second bonus for Teggart then. It won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but if he can win the next two sprints as well then he'll be in red tonight.

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The sprint is in a hamlet named Nomansland. Apparently only 150 people live there, so the local population will almost double when the peloton rolls through.

107km remaining from 174km

Scott Davies took third in the intermediate sprint. Teggart is virtual second in the intermediate sprint classification at the moment. It looks like he'll be in red after the stage.

100km remaining from 174km

The rain is properly falling now, and you'd think that the riders will be keen to reach the South Molton Pannier Market as quickly as possible.

95km remaining from 174km

There's a tv ad break at the moment. Hopefully we'll be back in time to see the South Molton Pannier Market.

87km remaining from 174km

I can't see their faces but I can only assume they're thrilled.

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5km to go until the break reaches the final intermediate sprint of the day. Can Matthew Teggart seal the lead in that classification and take red? We'll soon find out.

72km remaining from 174km

70km remaining from 174km

Here's a more detailed look at the final 60km of today's stage via Lasterketa Burua. You can see just how steep the day's final categorised climb of Challacombe Hill is, hitting gradients of 16-19% in the latter half of its 1.3km.

Some transfer news as Iljo Keisse takes to the front of the peloton once again after his huge ride yesterday.

59km remaining from 174km

As the break approach the top of the Bratton Fleming climb, we expect Davies to put in a dig and try for the points. He took eight on the first climb of the day all the way back at the start of the stage. If he were to do so then he'd take over the lead in the KOM classification with 16 points.

And there we go – Davies has shot off the front. The Brit eased away from his breakmates and looks set to take maximum points at the top of the climb.

Matthew Teggart is the only man missing as the break regroups with Davies. Having won each intermediate sprint today, he can consider it a job well done whether he rejoins the break or just drops back to the peloton.

55km remaining from 174km

Race leader André Greipel drops back to the team car, stuffing his green jersey full of bottles. Maybe he's not expecting to last in the peloton over the final hills of the day after all.

43km remaining from 174km

Matthew Teggart is keeping safe on the descent. It's twisty and technical, largely tree-covered, and the road is damp in places. Not pleasant.

37km remaining from 174km

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And with that surge in pace, the gap is falling away and approaching the two-minute mark.

Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) has also clipped off the front of the peloton. Carthy and Holmes are still up the road.

Helicopter shots show that the peloton has been thinned down to around 40-50 riders.

27km remaining from 174km

Stefan Küng (BMC) and Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) have made it across to the Gaviria group now.

23km remaining from 174km

And the break hits the final categorised climb of the day. The first cat climb of Challacombe Hill is 1.3km long with an average of 13% and maximum gradients of almost 20%

And the break hits the final categorised climb of the day. The first cat climb of Challacombe Hill is 1.3km long with an average of 13% and maximum gradients of almost 20%

Rowsell is the first to drop from the break on Challacombe Hill. 

22km remaining from 174km

Davies is leaving Meyer and Tonelli behind now, as a group of scantily-clad men run alongside the break. An even greater incentive to get to the top for the trio.

Scott Davies takes the points yet again. The Dimension Data man has 26 points now and will pull on the beautiful black jersey at the end of the stage.

Carthy is making his way through the remains of the breakaway. He is alone now though, and his favoured terrain is behind him. With 20km to run it looks tough for him to get anything done.

19km remaining from 174km

Alaphilippe takes to the front and immediately pulls out a small gap on Carthy as they fly downhill.

The peloton is 1:05 behind Davies, and riders are scattered across the road in between them.

16km remaining from 174km

Greipel was dropped from the peloton on the climb, by the way. We'll see a new race leader tonight.

15km remaining from 174km

Meanwhile, Meyer and Tonelli get back to Davies up front. We don't know exactly how far they are ahead of the chase groups so it's hard to gauge their chances of making it to the finish.

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Tonelli is on the front, and Meyer goes around him to open the sprint!

Meyer takes it! Tonelli second while the chasers come in just metres later!

Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) wins stage 2 of the Tour of Britain!

Tonelli took second behind Meyer while it looked a dead heat between Bevin and Alaphilippe for third.

It's Meyer's second individual win of the season, after the Commonwealth Games ITT. He was also part of the Mitchelton-Scott team that triumphed at Hammer Stavanger.

Results and quotes will follow when we get them.

Here's the Australian crossing the line ahead of Tonelli and just metres ahead of the charging chase group.

Stage 2 top ten:

Tonelli takes the race lead on countback – the Italian finished three places ahead of Meyer yesterday.

So from the day's original breakaway, Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) takes the green leader's jersey, Matthew Teggart (Team WIGGINS) will take the red sprints jersey, Scott Davies (Dimension Data) will be in the black KOM jersey and Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) took the stage win and the blue points jersey.

And a few words from the stage winner Meyer:

The jerseys after stage 2:

Tomorrows' stage begins and ends in Bristol, with a loop through the countryside taking in more hills. There's a spiky finale, including a first category climb just 8km from the finish and then another hill en route to the oft-used finish on Clifton Down.

 And that's it for the live coverage of stage 2 of the Tour of Britain! See you again for more fun tomorrow.

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