Although the climbs at the Tour of Britain are nothing like those offered by the organizers of the Tour of Spain, they are still formidable enough to challenge the riders and one must be very strong to win. Petr Vakoc (Etixx-Quickstep) proved exactly that when he soloed to victory on the second stage of the race. 

The young Czech rider was able to keep a handful of seconds advantage over his pursuers in order to celebrate his great victory which brought with it the leader’s jersey at the head of the general classification. The pure sprinters were left disappointed, and had to give up their places to the puncheurs at the line.

Unfortunately, Sondre Holst Enger was not able to find his place in the top-10, so IAM Cycling will have to wait at least another day to be center stage. At the time of explanation, Kjell Carlström, one of the directeurs sportifs for the Swiss professional team at the Tour of Britain in the company of Rubens Bertogliati, did not hide behind excuses when putting his finger on the root cause of the bad luck that the talented Norwegian sprinter Holst Enger had in the finale. 

“We had a more difficult day than the day before, and that’s saying something. During the morning briefing, we talked about all possible scenarios to reach the bottom of the finishing mini-climb with Sondre in a perfect position. Unfortunately, things did not unfold as we had expected. Jonas Vangenechten and Roger Kluge had dropped off well before we reached the finishing circuit.

"With four kilometers to go, Sondre dropped his chain. That was the absolute worst timing, because he was unable to get going again without first getting off the bike. He had no chance to catch back up. Clément Chevrier was not at his best, and Stef Clement had worked for Stefan Denifl all day. But Denifl wasn’t able to keep contact with the main group because he didn’t have the necessary strength.

"Given the problems that we have had, we may have to review our strategy for the overall, and aim more for stage victories. Normally, the next two stages should still be good for the sprinters.”