Kittel claims stage 2 sprint in l'Eurometropole Tour

Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) sprinted to victory in stage 2 of the l'Eurometropole Tour, the 11th win of the season for the 24-year-old German sprinter. French champion Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-Big Mat) finished in second for the 178.5km stage followed by Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEdge) in third place.

Stage one winner Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol) finished fourth on the day and continues to lead the general classification. The Belgian holds an 11-second advantage over Maarten Wynants and a 12-second lead on Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

An early break containing Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Loic Desriac (Roubaix Lille Metropole), David Boucher (FDJ-Big Mat) and Justin Van Hoecke (Wallonie Bruxelles-Credit Agricole) formed 10km into the stage and the quartet pushed out their advantage to more than five minutes. They were caught by the peloton, however, with approximately 50km remaining. For their efforts Boucher was awarded most combative rider for the stage while Neirynck earned enough KOM points to remain in the lead of the mountains classification.

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Soon after the early break was caught a counter-attack was launched comprised of Bjorn Thurau (Team Europcar), Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team), Christopher Juul Jensen (Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Florent Barle (Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne) and Kenneth Van Bilsen (An Post-Sean Kelly). The teams of the sprinters kept the escapees on a tight leash and this break, too, was caught with 16 kilometres remaining.

Another wave of attacks occurred but none were successful until Ian Stannard (Sky) set off alone at 12 kilometres to go. The British road champion held off the peloton for four kilometres but with the sprinters' lead-out trains kicking into high gear the solo Briton was caught leaving the field's fast men to vie for stage honours in Poperinge.

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