Thor Hushovd (BMC) lost the leader's jersey in today second stage of the Tour of Beijing when the Norwegian could only manage 27th in the bunch sprint. Having seen his team work hard on the front all day, he was badly placed when he passed the flamme rouge and got boxed in during the final sprint.

Thor Hushovd continued his strong second half of the season when he won the first stage of the Tour of Beijing yesterday and took the first leader's jersey in the race. However, he only got one day in the coveted tunic as he lost it in today's second stage.

His BMC had been dominant on the front of the peloton during the entire stage with Marco Pinotti, Lawrence Warbasse and Martin Kohler all doing an amazing job to keep an early 5-rider breakaway under control. Unfortunately, there was no BMC riders to be seen when the riders powered down the finishing straight in the final bunch sprint.

Hushovd finished far back in 27th and as stage winner Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) had finished 8th on the first stage and got equal on time with the Norwegian due to today's time bonuses, the Frenchman is the new leader on a count-back. While Hushovd praised the teamwork, he was punished for his bad position in the final part of the race.

"I was too many places back and then tried to go, and then I got boxed in so it was over," he said. "The team did a great job to control the breakaway. Unfortunately, we did a big effort and lost the stage and lost the jersey. But sometimes it's like this."

Sports director Max Sciandri was happy with the way the team had controlled the stage.

"Our goal today was to control the race in a way to not go crazy," he said. "It happened pretty well that five guys went and we kept them in range – four or five minutes. I am happy with the way the team rode."

During most of the stage, it was BMC who did the pace-setting with Argos-Shimano only doing an occasional contribution. Kohler who was one of the hard workers, had hoped to get some help from the sprint teams

"But they really didn't do this," he said. "Only in the last 20 kilometers did we get help of another guy [Yan Dong Xing]. Therefore, it was a pretty hard day."

Tomorrow, the Tour of Beijing enters hillier terrain on a stage that contains 7 categorized climbs. Hushovd expects it to be too hard for him and can't see himself get another chance until Sunday's final stage in the centre of Beijing.