Tour of Britain 2013 - Stage 2
The Tour of Britain continued today with another stage battered by strong winds and heavy rain. It was the longest stage in the race's ten year history today, the peloton riding 225 kilometres from Carlisle to Kendal, home of the famous mint cake. The weather once again did not put off the breakaway, with seven men escaping early on in the stage.
In this break were Angel Madrazo (Movistar Team), Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), Mike Northey (Node-4 Giordana), Jonathan Dibben (Great Britain), Nicola Boem (Bardiani Valvole), Sean Downey (An Post-Chain Reaction) and Matt Cronshaw (IG Sigma Sport). As the break fought out the sprints and mountains points along the stage route, a big crash occurred in the peloton. Four men were immediately forced to abandon, these being Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Sharp), Hugh Carthy (Rapha Condor-JLT), Andreas Stauff (MTN-Qhubeka) and a man who many had tipped for overall honours, Giovanni Visconti of Movistar.
Sir Bradley Wiggins also crashed at this point, but was able to remount after reportedly landing right on Giovanni Visconti, who must've felt hard done by that Wiggins had put the extra 7 kilograms on in preparation for the world championships. It was the first category climb of Honister Pass that really split the field and put pressure on the break; Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Dan Martin and Tour de France runner up Nairo Quintana decided to go on the attack and put pressure on Sir Brad.
The duo eventually picked up the leaders with 50 kilometres to go, and along with Madrazo went clear of the group. They soon had a good gap, but the escape was not to last. Sky had Bernhard Eisel drilling it on the front of the peloton, and they were brought back with around 35 kilometres to go. Then Quintana's teammate Enrique Sanz had a dig off the front, but his lone effort only lasted until just outside 20 kilometres to go.
A few other brief attacks went off the front, but none were substantial until Thomas Lofkvist of IAM Cycling went clear with around 6 kilometres to go. It looked as if the former Sky rider had timed it perfectly, as he stayed away, and went under the flamme rouge with a ten second gap. If the run in had been flat, I can scarcely say Lofkvist would have probably gone on to win the stage, but the uphill finish sapped the last drop of strength from his legs.
Sam Bennett of An Post-Chain Reaction caught him first, but Gerald Ciolek, this year's Milan-San Remo winner and MTN-Qhubeka rider also fought back, and overtook Bennett metres from the line to take an impressive strong man's victory. Nicola Boem accumulated enough points to get himself into the sprints jersey, and Angel Madrazo earned himself the lead in the King of the Mountains. Ciolek by virtue of his victory took the lead in the general classification and the points classification.
Sir Bradley Wiggins now sits 31 seconds back, with chief rival Nairo Quintana 51 seconds back. Quintana was penalised twenty seconds for sheltering behind a car, and last year's runner up Nathan Haas had to abandon after a crash. All in all, a crazy day on the Tour of Britain, and one that was judged by many to be the best in the race's history, let's hope for more of the same for the week ahead.