Breschel wins stage 2 in Denmark

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Matti Breschel (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) won stage 2 at the Tour of Denmark and made history by becoming the rider with the most stage victories in the race's history. Magnus Cort Nielsen (Team Cult Energy) retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.

Despite heavy gray skies, spirits were high among racers and the spectators before the start of stage 2 in the city of Ribe.

Like yesterday, a group escaped quickly after the start including Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox), Mathias Moller Nielsen (Blue Water Cycling), Rasmus Mygind (Team Trefor) and Martin Green (Concordia Insurance - Riwal). The four men worked well together and got a gap of 3:25 after 40km. However, any dreams of making the break stick evaporated when they were caught after 52km.

Several more attempts to get away followed, but it wasn't until 73km that three men escaped. A few kilometers later, two more joined them, forming a quintet consisting of Matthias Brändle (Team IAM), Martijn Verschoor (Team Novo Nordisk), Rasmus Quaade (Team Trefor), Mikkel Mortensen (Concordia Insurance - Riwal) and Rolf Broge (Team Post Denmark).

They gained two minutes on the field when Team Cult Energy settled in at the front of the peloton to defend its yellow jersey, held by Magnus Cort Nielsen. Over the next several kilometers the distance between the break and the main peloton stayed around two minutes.

Eventually the efforts of Team Cult Energy started to pay off. They were helped by Katusha, and between 120km and 130km the break's gap shrunk to 1:30.

When the main field hit the finishing circuit in Sønderborg, it had caught most of the break.

Brändle was the last man left off the front from the break. He made his bid at glory, but was caught on the second circuit by Rolf Broge (Team Post Denmark), Jens Debusschere (Lotto Belisol) and Danish champion Michael Mørkøv (Team Saxo-Tinkoff).

With the finish line getting closer, several of the top sprinters' teams got serious and worked together to catch the leaders with 4km to go.

Omega Pharma-QuickStep and Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox got their trains ready, but it was Team Saxo-Tinkoff which successfully took the sprint victory with Breschel, who finished ahead of Slovenian teammate Marko Kump and Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling).

The 20-year-old Cort Nielsen kept the yellow jersey and also leads the best young rider competition. Nikola Aistrup (Concordia Insurance - Riwal) lead the points competition and Brändle was recognized as the most aggressive rider.

Lotto Belisol is currently the top ranked team.

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