André Greipel (LTS) took the win in Breda on stage two of the Eneco Tour (180.7) as Jesper Asselman (ROO) profited from the ‘Golden Kilometer’ - a series of three intermediate sprints, awarded a maximum nine-second bonus - to take over the white leader’s jersey in the Northern race, where José Joaquín Rojas again fought for victory.

Well supported by the Movistar Team, with Dayer Quintana, Sütterlin and Sanz from halfway through the race plus Gorka Izagirre and even Juanjo Lobato in the closing phase, Rojas suffered after intense swerving in the final kilometers. Despite recovering position with 500m to go, the Spaniard was left with no energy for the decisive rush, crossing the line in 16th.

The race marks Andrey Amador's return to racing after his fourth place in the Giro.

"Here the most important thing is to be well placed but the is a high probability of going down," he said. "You have to be in front or at the back to avoid crashes," he said.

"In this race, there are no easy days. You always have to be careful to avoid any mishap. The roads are narrow and we are going fast. A crash can be fatal."

The Eneco Tour will cross the border to Flanders on Wednesday, riding towards Ardooie (171.9km) in the predictably final mass sprint before a 14km ITT starts to clear up the GC in Hoogerheide on Thursday.