Following a 3rd place at yesterday’s opening stage, John Degenkolb laid down a strong sprint to the win after a perfect lead-out by the team today.

Initially, 4 riders made the days break, as 2 others bridged the gap later on. With a maximum advantage of almost 7 minutes, Cofidis, Solution Crédits and Rad-Net Rose Team did most of the chase work.

Bringing the leaders back to a playable gap, the sprinters took over the command to prepare another bunch sprint. With a strong sprint effort Degenkolb was the fastest in Bayern today. Degenkolb will also start in the leader’s jersey at stage 3 tomorrow.

After the stage a delighted Degenkolb said: “It was a great day, we targeted this stage win and it’s great to reach it. The team worked hard, but they also did that yesterday where we did not succeed 100%. Today they gave me a great lead-out and I am very happy with that.

“The sprint today was a bit uphill for the final 250 meters and that suited me very well. We have the yellow jersey now and we are going to defend it tomorrow. It won’t be easy, but we will see how it goes.

“It is great to see how excited the German fans are and how they are supporting us here in Bayern right now. German cycling is really going up again after a lot of work and that makes me really happy. That is why it is extra special to show the public a nice win here in my home country.”

Coach Christian Guiberteau added: “We are very happy with this succes at the second day of the Bayern Rundfahrt. The team performed very well and the lead-out went perfectly today. From the start our goal was to win a stage here and we knew it was possible with John [Degenkolb] and we did it.

“Today, we changed our strategy a little bit by not wasting too much energy in the chase as Lars [van der Haar] started to join the chase from the feeding zone. In this way we kept Albert [Timmer] and Ramon [Sinkeldam] fresh for the final kilometer. Also this victory in Germany is very important and nice for our sponsors.”