Kittel wins stage 2 in Koksijde

Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i) won stage 2 at the Three Days of De Panne in a field sprint finale. The German out-kicked Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Boy Van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare) for the victory in Koksijde.

"When I saw the finish line for the first time I said to Bert De Backer ‘that's perfect for me.' It's 1,000 metres long, straight, wind on the back, high speed. That's something I really like. The finish was also chaotic and every rider has to fight on his own for his place and come to the front and that was something which was a big advantage for me," Kittel said.

"I was not sure until the last 100 metres if I could still do it. I tried to be on the best position. I was lucky that Kenny Van Hummel started to sprint on the right side, Kristoff started to sprint on the left side and I could go in the middle. From there on I went full gas. Luckily I had really good legs today in the sprint."

Stage 1 winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was true to his word that he was at the race for training, and dropped off the back of the peloton in the closing kilometres. As a result Alexander Kristoff is the new Three Days of De Panne leader. Jacopo Guarnieri (Astana) is second overall, tied on time with Kristoff, while Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas-Cannondale) is third overall at one second.

Unlike yesterday's parcours, stage two was the perfect scenario for the bunch sprinters with the only climbs clustered together in the mid-section of the stage. By the time the peloton was at the day's first climb, the Mesenberg at 105km, a break had already formed with three riders building a near seven minute lead.

Andy Cappelle (Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's), Jonathan Breyne (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony) and Brian Vandborg (Spidertech powered by C10) were of little concern in the overall race. Not that it seemed to matter one iota. Overnight leader Peter Sagan seemed intent on losing ground in the overall in order to spare him any chance of riding Thursday's time trial. He even turned water-carrier at one point, a clear indication that the Tour of Flanders is a true and capable target for the young Slovak talent.

After the fifth and final climb on the Vidaigneberg, with 90km remaining to the finish, the leaders still had a healthy advantage. Omega Pharma-QuickStep served further notice of their strength for Flanders by briefly splitting the bunch and with help from Astana almost made Sagan's wish of losing a chunk of time a reality. However with Stijn Devolder, Leif Hoste and Sebastian Langeveld all caught napping the 10 second gap was eventually nullified.

But the episode seemed to awaken the rest of the field. With 55 kilometres remaining Lotto-Belisol pushed towards the front, clearly in a bid to support Andre Greipel in a sprint. Quite why the German decided to take a huge turn on the front remains unclear but it certainly gave his teammates a much needed push, as until that point the gap to the break was still hovering at five minutes. More teams joined the pursuit of the break, with Europcar and Katusha flanking Greipel's guard.

Ahead Cappelle found an extra gear, which ended Vandborg's day. Within a kilometre the burly Belgian was at it again, dismissing Breyne from his back wheel. Hardly the prettiest rider on a bike, Cappelle heaved and hammered a huge gear along the Belgian coast, with the gap slowly but surely trickling down.

Cappelle and the watching spectators were eventually put out of their misery on the final lap of the coastal run with 12 kilometres left and with the Accent Jobs rider caught it was over to the sprinters to dispute the stage.

Into the long finish straight Kittel manoeuvred himself on Kenny Van Hummel's wheel before powering through to take the win.