A powerful ride from Sergio Henao saw the Team Sky rider lift himself to second overall at the Tour of Poland after stage two.

The Colombian finished with a flourish to claim fourth spot on a tough uphill finish in Italy after a breakaway had gone on to contest the podium places.

Christophe Riblon (AG2R) proved to be the strongest of the day’s 16-strong breakaway as the Frenchman repeated his Tour de France Alpe d'Huez heroics to capture a solo victory on the day.

Following the gruelling challenges of the day, Sports Director Dan Hunt heaped praise on both Henao and the work done by Bradley Wiggins to help set up his team-mate.

“It was a super ride by Sergio today, supported really well by Brad – right up until the last climb. Sergio looked really strong and he’s in a great position now. The break took no time on the rest of the top GC guys. He was able to sit in the front group and not expend lots of energy like he did yesterday. That meant he could finish strong,” Hunt said according to the Sky website.

Reflecting on a very demanding route, Hun went on to describe trials of the day in the Dolomites: “That was hard. Over 5000 metres of climbing with three cat one climbs back-to-back. You just went down one but up another. The first one, Passo Pampeago, was absolutely brutal. The peloton was in bits. It smashed the whole race apart. The second climb was tough but Sergio was good on there. The Colombia squad set a decent tempo. Then onto the final climb Brad made sure Sergio had everything he needed and from there on he did great.”

Today’s result puts Henao just four seconds off new race leader Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) heading into the rest day as the race relocates to Poland.