Arnaud Demare (FDJ) is flying at the moment as he proved today by winning a tough uphill sprint on the second stage of the Eneco Tour. Having been brought into position for the sprint by his teammates, he started his sprint from 5th and opened up a big gap to world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) while Mark Renshaw (Belkin) suffered a late puncture and thus lost his leader's jersey to the stage winner.

Arnaud Demare entered this year's Eneco Tour with plenty of confidence after his recent win in the RideLondon Classic and today he underlined that he had some reason to believe in himself. In a tough uphill sprint that left most of the pure sprinters suffering, the Frenchman had an amazing kick that not even world champion Philippe Gilbert could match.

Having been brought into 5th position by his teammates, he benefited from Gilbert's lead-out man Daniel Oss who strung out the peloton as they headed up the 5% climb to the finish. When he finally produced his trademark acceleration, he produced immense power that allowed him to open up daylight between himself and the world champion while Tyler Farrar fought hard to take third on the day.

Overnight leader Mark Renshaw had an unfortunate puncture inside the final 3km but was given the same time as the main peloton. However, a split occurred on the tough finishing straight and so Renshaw lost 5 seconds to the best riders on the stage. That was enough for him to slip down to 2nd while Demare's bonus seconds put him into the leader's jersey.

He will try to defend his lead in tomorrow's third stage which is the first on Dutch soil in this year's Tour. The 187,3km stage is completely flat and takes the riders into the very windy Zeeland region. Hence, it should be a very nervous day in the saddle and the danger of crosswinds will loom throughout most of the final part of the stage where the riders will tackle a couple of circuits near the coast.

Starting at 14.45, you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

A strong 4 rider break

The 176,9km second stage had a rather lumpy profile as it took the riders into the Flemish Ardennes and over some of the hellingen that are known from the Flemish classics. Just before the finish in the Bruxelles suburb in Vorst, the riders were set to tackle the well-known Alsemberg and Bruine Put climbs while the final kilometre was all uphill with a 5% average gradient.

Early on, Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen), Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen), Mathew Hayman (Sky) and Gediminas Bagdonas (Ag2r) escaped and those 4 riders were allowed to build up a large gap that reached its maximum at 6.48. De Vreese was also in yesterday's break and was on a mission as he wanted to defend his lead in the sprints competition which he also won last year. He did what he had to do by taking the win in both Primus sprints uncontested.

The chase gets organized

In the peloton, Cannondale and Belkin started to chase, putting Brian Vandborg and Maarten Tajllingii on the front respectively. The former hoped to see Elia Viviani win the sprint while the latter was defending Renshaw's overall lead.

Cannondale stopped their effort after the feed zone but were replaced by Lotto-Belisol who added Sander Cordeel to the chase, hoping to see Andre Greipel improve on yesterday's 2nd place. With 54km to go, BMC showed that Gilbert had red-circled the stage by putting Amael Moinard on the front.

Numerous punctures

Tjallingii, Moinard and Cordeel did a huge work but had difficulty reeling in the very strong break. With 45km to go, the gap was still 4.40 and 11km further down the road, the escapees were 3.50 ahead. At the same time, several riders suffered punctures, Demare being one of the riders who had to spend energy to get back on.

Tjallingii and Moinard used up all their energy which left Cordeel to do all the work when less than 30km remained. When the Belgian fell off, his teammate Jonas Vangenechten took on the role as the sole chaser in the peloton.

The final climbs produce a spectacle

With 20km to go, the breakaway climbed the Alsemberg which had an intermediate sprint located on its top. Bagdonas tried to go from afar but instead he fell off the pace when De Vreese countered. Only Hayman could match his speed and the Australian had no trouble taking maximum points. After the climb, they waited for their companions and the 4 escapees once again joined forces.

The battle for position in the run-in to the climb had seen the gap drop dramatically as FDJ had now taken control. Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) attacked up the slopes and was joined by Yoann Offredo (FDJ) before being brought back by the peloton. Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) who finished 3rd in the race last year, made a counterattack and Matti Breschel (Saxo-Tinkoff) bridged across to from a chase duo.

The break splits up

On the Bruine Put climb with 13km to go, Bagdonas fell off the pace while Hayman attacked to once again win the intermediate sprint on the top. This time the Australian decided to continue on his own while Declercq and De Vreese chased behind.

Breschel fell back into the peloton while Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil) made a counterattack. Gilbert bridged across with the rest of the peloton in tow. Instead, Offredo tried another move, this time with Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol) for company but those two didn't get far before being brought back.

The chase gets organized

The chase now got organized as Orica-GreenEdge, BMC, Lotto-Belisol and Belkin joined forces, Jens Mouris, Peter Weening, Danilo Wyss, Tim Wellens, Jens Debusschere, Frederik Willems and Jos Van Emden all taking turns on the front. Up ahead, the three leaders had found back together while Terpstra and Bagdonas were brought back in by the peloton.

BMC also joined the chase with Manuel Quniziato before Garmin-Sharp took over with 6 riders hitting the front. FDJ were next in line while Argos-Shimano was the team in control when the break was caught with 2,5km to go.

Renshaw punctures

Omega Pharma-Quick Step put Stijn Vandenbergh on the front and the Belgian led the peloton under the flamme rouge with teammate Petacchi in his wheel. At this point, Renshaw had fallen behind due to a puncture.

Boy Van Poppel (Vacansoleil) led the peloton on the lower slopes of the final climb but was overtaken by Daniel Oss who did an amazing lead-out for teammate Gilbert. However, Demare had got himself into 5th position and from there he produced his kick, taking both the stage win and the leader's jersey.

Result:

1. Arnaud Demare 4.03.34

2. Philippe Gilbert

3. Tyler Farrar

4. Marko Kump

5. Alessandro Petacchi

6. Jean-Pierre Drucker

7. Filippo Pozzato

8. Taylor Phinney

9. Lars Boom

10. Matthieu Ladagnous

General classification:

1. Arnaud Demare 8.04.40

2. Mark Renshaw +0.03

3. Philippe Gilbert +0.04

4. Tyler Farrar +0.06

5. Lars Boom +0.07

6. Taylor Phinney +0.08

7. Andre Greipel +0.09

8. Alessandro Petacchi +0.10

9. Matthieu Ladagnous

10. Jean-Pierre Drucker