With wins in Plouay and Poitou-Charentes, Sylvain Chavanel is in excellent condition at the moment and is one of the favourites to win the Tour of Britain overall. Today he tried to gain a few seconds by attacking in the finale of stage 2.

Mark Renshaw gave his 58th victory to Omega Pharma-Quickstep at the end of the second stage of the Tour of Britain.  The Australian also gained the leader’s jersey in the general classification on the eve of a summit finish. 

For its part, IAM Cycling still managed to leave its mark on the stage with two riders in the top-10 thanks to Jérôme Pineau’s 7th place and Heinrich Haussler’s 10th.  Haussler now stands in 9th place in the overall classification following the attempts of Sylvain Chavanel in the final to grab the stage victory.
 
Reflecting on the stage, Chavanel was happy with his performance considering the circumstances. 

“I had not necessarily planned to attack.  But there were guys struggling in the descent.  There was no risk with the beautiful enfilades.  I put in an effort to join Dowsett in an attack, but it was not obvious.  We drove the pace well, but leveled off in the final.  It’s not easy with the pack riding behind you at more than 60km/hr.  But the team still found a way to place well with both Jérôme and Heinrich in the top-10.  Tomorrow the finish will be more complicated with some steep percentages.  We’ll see what happens.”
 
Eddy Seigneur, directeur sportif for IAM Cycling along with Kjell Carlström, relished the attitude of his riders. 

“Everything went well during this stage, including having no major problems throughout the day and the team managing to place well in the final.  Sylvain Chavanel attacked on the descent with Dowsett with the idea of winning the stage considering his talent as a puncheur.  He was missing only 400 meters to succeed in his gamble. 

"Well positioned in the pack, Jérôme Pineau and Heinrich Haussler were able to put in digs for victory in their own right.  And again, both missed out by the smallest of margins.  Haussler in fact was very angry about how he managed the sprint.  Knowing his determination and character, this bodes well for the future.”