Greipel wins second straight stage at Tour of Belgium

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André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) won his second straight stage at the Tour of Belgium with a photo finish victory ahead of Danny van Poppel (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Belgian champion Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). With the time bonuses factored in Greipel extends his general classification lead slightly to 10 seconds ahead of Boonen and 14 seconds on van Poppel.

A field sprint finale didn't seem to be the likely outcome to the second stage of the Tour of Belgium, 181km from Knokke-Heist to Ninove on a route which featured part of the Tour of Flanders parcours, as a dangerous three-man break jumped away from the peloton with 12km remaining. Soon after Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha), the last survivor of the day's early five-man escape, was brought back after he crested the Bosberg in the lead, world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Dutch road champion Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) attacked and threatened to ride away with the stage honours.

Their lead on the peloton steadily increased and with 4km to go the trio's advantage topped out at 25 seconds. Cooperation between the escapees, however, wasn't maintained as Terpstra opted to let Gilbert and Gavazzi do the work. One kilometre later their lead was reduced to 14 seconds by a Lotto Belisol-led peloton and within the final kilometre their attack was neutralised.

Entering the finishing straight Boonen launched his sprint down the center of the road, with van Poppel on the left and Greipel on the right. The Lotto Belisol German, however, proved too strong as he powered his way along the barrier to take his second victory in as many days.

"Two out of two is of course a good result," said Greipel. "The guys did an awesome job, especially in the chase on those last three escapees. In the sprint I couldn't shift my gear to the 11, so I couldn't go full from the start.

"The weather wasn't good today, which didn't make the job any easier, but everyone did their best to defend my leader's jersey."

Within the final hour of racing, while the lead of the early five-man break containing Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha), Arman Kamyshev (Astana), Europcar teammates Sébastien Turgot and Alexandre Pichot plus Stijn Steels (Crelan-Euphony) was steadily coming down, Omega Pharma-QuickStep shattered the peloton in a crosswind section with approximately 33km remaining in the stage. The Belgian WorldTour squad put seven riders on the front in a move designed to put race leader André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) in trouble, but the German was attentive and made the split, albeit rather isolated for the time being in the initial selection.

As all but Ignatyev were swept up by the Omega Pharma-QuickStep-pace group with 22km remaining, chasers made their way back on and once the peloton crested the Bosberg for the second time the group's numbers had swelled to nearly 60.

Gilbert, Terpstra and Gavazzi nearly stole the show with an attack 12km out, but once again at the Tour of Belgium a field sprint decided the stage.

"In the final we tried to split the group," said Boonen, third on the stage. "It worked for a little bit, but not perfectly. Then in the end I jumped a little bit too early for the sprint because I made a mistake yesterday and I didn't want to do it twice. I think if the finish line was 20 meters earlier I would have made it. So, I just need to improve a little bit more."