Back-to-back stage victories for Greipel

Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) took his second consecutive stage win at the Eneco Tour on Tuesday, producing another late but successful charge to the line in Ardooie.

The 29-year-old German let his rivals lead-out the sprint and then kicked hard after the final left curve spread the sprinters across the road. He surged up the inside, passing Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) to win by a bike length.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) finished third, edging out Jean-Pierre Drucker (Veranda's Willems-Accent) and Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank-SunGard).

Taylor Phinney (BMC) finished sixth and so kept the overall race lead. However, Boasson Hagen earned a four-second time bonus for his placing and is now just three seconds down on the prodigious American on the eve of the first stage in the Ardennes hills. David Millar (Garmin-Cervelo) is third at eight seconds.

Phinney again generously thanked his BMC teammates for all their hard work during the stage and promised they would try to defend his slim race lead on Wednesday.

"It was a very nervous final two hours but I wanted to try and win today," Phinney said. "I felt good and this time didn't make the mistake of starting my sprint too early. Unfortunately I was only sixth.

"Edvald took some time and he's a threat because he's a good climber. Gilbert is the king of these kind of climbs and there are a lot of strong teams who want to try and take the jersey from us. But we'll take it as it comes and see what happens."

Greipel waved at his Omega Pharma-Lotto teammates as he crossed the line, thankful for some excellent support in the final kilometres.

"Ardooie is a special for me," he said, reminding people that he also won here in 2010.

"It's a nice finish, wide and so everyone has a chance. I decided to wait until five kilometres to go before moving up in the peloton. The head wind was a key factor in the race and I wanted to wait to carefully use my strength. It was the right thing to do because I'm able to count on a super team. Marcel Sieberg and Jurgen Roelandts led me out perfectly."

A day out in the Flandrian countryside

Following two stages in the Netherlands, the Eneco Tour headed south to Western Flanders in Belgium for the second road stage. The twisting route gave the riders a summer taste of the spring Classics, with several sections of cobbles and several short, steep and nasty climbs. The traffic furniture again kept the riders on edge, often splitting riders and shuffling the peloton as the stage looped through Ghent and Kortrijk on the way to Ardooie.

However, the stage followed a pretty much standard pattern, with an early breakaway going clear after half an hour of racing.

Sam Bewley (RadioShack), Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen), Han Feng (Skil-Shimano) and Rob Goris (Willems Veranda's-Accent) opened a five-minute advantage but the BMC team kept the move in check, defending Taylor Phinney’s race lead. Team Sky also did a big share of the work, knowing that Edvald Boasson Hagen was in an excellent position to take the lead and eventually win overall. 

Feng and Bewley were caught with 50km to go, as Australia’s Mitchell Docker (Skil-Shimano), Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad) Aleksejs Saramotins (Cofidis) jumped across the gap. They were initially allowed to open a gap but the peloton again chased them down as the sprinters flexed their muscles ready for the sprint.

The peloton came back together with 23km to go and then the run in to Ardooie was fast and furious as different teams hit the front on a finishing circuit. Several left turns shuffled the pack and allowed the sprinters and their lead-outs to quickly move up to the front. Greipel was seen near the back of the peloton with just five kilometres to go but was soon at the head of affairs.

Boasson Hagen also moved up late thanks to some excellent work from his teammates. He was dragged to the front of the peloton and Geraint Thomas tried to set him up for the sprint as riders bumped shoulders and fought for position. However a tight left turn between the houses of Ardooie and then a chicane of left and right turns left the peloton lined out.

Like on Tuesday, Greipel was a little too far back but waited for the final turn and then pounced, using his superior speed to move past his rivals. It was Greipel's eighth win of the season after a difficult start to the year with Omega Pharma-Lotto but he now seems back to his consistently successful best.

Unfortunately for the powerful German rider nick-named 'the Gorilla', the Eneco Tour heads into the Ardennes hills on Wednesday. The 192.2km stage is from Heers to Andenne and the riders will have to climb six taxing climbs, including the Mur de Huy. The stage ends with six small climbs in the final 25km, meaning that the overall classification is set for a major shake-up as the real overall contenders emerge.