Thor Hushovd (BMC) lived up to his status as favourite for the inaugural Arctic Tour of Norway by taking a convincing sprint win in the second stage of the race. Having benefited from a perfect lead-out from teammate Adam Blythe, the win was enough to move the Norwegian into the overall lead as previous leader Kenny Van Hummel (Vacansoleil) only managed to take 4th in the sprint.

Thor Hushovd was left disappointed yesterday when his team had done an awful lot of work to chase down the early break in the first stage of the Arctic Tour of Norway and the Norwegian had only been able to take fourth in the final sprint. Today he made up for that loss by not only taking the win in today's bunch sprint but also moving him into first position on GC.

Unlike yesterday, his BMC team had hid in the peloton and let the other teams do the work to bring back an early 6-rider group and so it was the American team who had the numbers in the end. Teammate Adam Blythe proved his worth by delivering his captain perfectly to the line and no one could come around the powerful Norwegian who took a convincing win.

Overnight leader Kenny Van Hummel could only take 4th and that allowed Hushovd to take over the leader's jersey ahead of tomorrow's third stage. Like the previous two stages, that one is also expected to end in a bunch sprint and so Hushovd needs to keep his sprinting legs fresh to defend his jersey for another day.

6 riders go clear

The 156,5km stage was almost completely flat and perfectly suited to a big bunch sprint but many of the smaller teams still had intentions of an aggressive showing. Early on, Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen), Russell Downing (NetApp-Endura), Max Korner (Ringerik-Kraft), Edwin Wilson (Joker Merida), Swedish champion Michael Olsson (People4You) and August Jensen (Øster Hus) escaped and managed to build up a gap of around 3 minutes.

The Vacansoleil team of overall leader Van Hummel was left to do all the early work in the peloton and Rob Ruijgh rode on the front for a long time to keep the gap stable at around the 3-minute mark. With 52km to go, they finally received some help when Katusha and Argos-Shimano decided to lend a hand to the chase, hoping to see their sprinters Marco Haller and Jonas Ahlstrand take today's win.

More teams join the chase

Later Plussbank (working for Sondre Holst Enger) and BigMat (working for Fabian Bacquet) also decided to chip in and the combined forces of those 5 teams brought the gap down to less than a minute. To avoid an early catch, the peloton slowed significantly down and for some time, a lonely Oneco rider was seen riding on the front.

That allowed the gap to grow back up to 2 minutes but with 20km to go, Katusha, Vacansoleil, Argos, BigMat and Plussbank once again upped the pace and started to bring the advantage back down. When the peloton was down to less than a minute, the harmony in the front group was broken as they started to attack each other.

The harmony is broken

Downing was one of the riders to launch several attacks but it was Korner that was ultimately successful. However, Olsson and Downing bridged across while the remaining three escapees fell back into the peloton. However, Helven had picked up many bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints and he was rewarded with a 3rd place on GC for his efforts.

When the front trio was about to get caught, a Plussbank rider made a powerful attack but Argos and Vacansoleil had everything under control. With 6,9km to go, eveything was back together, only to see a Plussbank and a Cofidis rider make new attacks.

Martens attacks

The Plussbank rider had most success but behind Belkin had organized their troops and they brought back the lone Norwegian. Instead, the Dutch team launched Paul Martens up the road and he was joined by another rider from the Plussbank team.

By now, BMC had, however, taken responsibility in the peloton and with 2,5km to go, they had brought the front duo back. They momentarily lost control to NetApp-Endura but when they passed the flamme rouge, it was Sebastian Lander who set the pace with teammates Blythe and Hushovd in his wheel.

When Blythe took over, Hushovd allowed Van Asbroeck to move ahead of him but the Belgian had no response when Hushovd put down the hammer a little later. He took a very convincing win and now leads Van Hummel by 3 seconds ahead of tomorrow's third stage.

Results:

1. Thor Hushovd 3.38.09

2. Tom Van Asbroeck

3. Marco Haller

4. Kenny Van Hummel

5. Sondre Holst Enger

6. Jetse Bol

7. Yannis Yssaad

8. Louis Verhelst

9. Ralf Matzka

10. Tony Hurel

General classification:

1. Thor Hushovd 8.01.41

2. Kenny Van Hummel +0.03

3. Sander Helven +0.04

4. Tom Van Asbroeck +0.07

5. Barry Markus

6. Rüdiger Selig +0.09

7. Marco Haller

8. Sep Vanmarcke +0.10

9. Matthias Friedemann +0.11

10. Kevin Van Melsen

Points classification:

1. Thor Hushovd 25

2. Kenny Van Hummel 22

3. Tom Van Asbroeck 12

4. Barry Markus 12

5. Jetse Bol 11

Mountains classification:

1. Lars-Petter Nordhaug 12

2. August Jensen 8

3. Paul Martens 6

4. Bjørn Tore Nilsen Hoem 5

5. Sep Vanmarcke 4

Youth classification:

1. Sander Helven 8.01.45

2. Tom Van Asbroeck +0.03

3. Barry Markus

4. Rüdiger Selig +0.05

5. Marco Haller

Teams classification:

1. Topsport Vlaanderen 24.05.42

2. Vacansoleil 13.11.15

3. Katusha

4. Cofidis

5. BigMat