Hofland wins stage 2 of Tour de Yorkshire

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Moreno Hofland claimed LottoNL-Jumbo’s first victory of the season when he led the Tour de Yorkshire pack into York at the end of stage 2 of the race. BMC Racing’s Greg Van Avermaet made a late solo bid for victory with a kilometre to go, but couldn’t hold off the sprinters when they opened up in the final 200 metres. Hofland proved the quickest of them, edging out IAM Cycling’s Matteo Pelucchi, with Giant-Alpecin’s Ramon Sinkeldam third.

Team Sky’s Lars-Petter Nordhaug retained the leader’s blue jersey ahead of Sunday’s concluding stage between Wakefield and Leeds. BMC’s Samuel Sánchez moved up to second place behind the Norwegian, thanks to a split in the bunch that meant that Europcar’s Thomas Voeckler lost six seconds and dropped to third on GC.

Hofland and his teammates were understandably delighted to take victory for what had been the WorldTour’s only winless squad. “We used a lot of guys chasing down the break. I was on Robert Wagner’s wheel but got near the front a bit early, so I dropped back a bit and got on Pelucchi’s wheel, which was a good wheel to be on,” said Hofland.

“I waited until I saw the 200-metre sign, opened up with all the speed I had and came past everyone. Luckily, the zero that was behind Lotto-Jumbo has now gone,” said the smiling Dutchman, who hopes his form and the motivation he gained from this success will serve him equally well when he starts the Giro d’Italia in a week’s time.

Until late in the stage, it appeared that the peloton might not have the firepower to reel some members of the day’s breakaway, which had gone clear after 5km. Initially it featured 18 riders, including Team Sky’s Philip Deignan, who was in the leading group of five that contested the stage 1 finish in Scarborough.

Sky’s GC rivals were never likely to allow Deignan any leeway, and the Irishman eventually dropped back to the peloton with nine others, leaving eight ahead of the main pack: Andy Tennant (WIGGINS), Bert De Backer (Giant-Alpecin), Stijn Steels (Topsport Vlaanderen), Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar), Matt Brammeier (MTN-Qhubeka), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Ivar Slik (Roompot Oranje) and Mark McNally (Madison-Genesis).

McNally collected maximum points on the day’s two climbs. On the second at Fimber the break’s lead reached a maximum of 6:40. At that point Sky and then IAM Cycling began to up the pace in the peloton, cutting the break’s advantage to just over two minutes as the riders reached York for the first of two 21km laps around the city.

As the bunch closed, the break split, De Backer and the day’s most aggressive rider McNally continuing their effort into the final 11km. With 5km remaining, McNally’s ran out of juice, and De Backer continued on alone, until Cofidis’ Anthony Turgis flew out of the pack to join the Belgian, only to see the pack engulf them moments later.

With tomorrow’s tough final stage through the Pennines now certain to decide the title, race leader Nordhaug said he had spent the stage doing all he could to save his legs. “It’s going to be really hard and I expect a tough fight,” said the Sky man, who leads Sánchez and Voeckler by just 10 seconds.

Watch the post-race interview with stage winner Hofland below.

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