"The Tour of Belgium is always a good race. The riders are strong and the stages are always hard."

Those were the words of Astana's Borut Božič after stage two at the Baloise Belgium Tour. Božič finished in the leading group of riders behind stage winner Arnaud Démare of France after a hard day in the main breakaway over cobbles and hills.

Teammate Laurens De Vreese crossed the finish line together with Božič, with Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev and Andrea Guardini further back on a stage of extreme difficulty and high speed.

The Belgium Tour next moves into the hilly Ardennes region near Charleroi, with two more difficult stages of climbing to come. Saturday's stage will feature three lakeside finish circuits, and is likely to be under strong control by Belgian teams looking forward to Sunday's very difficult final stage and 10 categorized climbs.