Just seven seconds kept Juanjo Lobato away from a convincing victory on stage two of the Tour of Britain, over 157km in a loop around Lancashire from Clitheroe to Colne, which saw big protagonism from the Movistar Team.

A brief attack from Alex Dowsett, together with Williams (ONE), and most notably Fernández’s move after the Bleara Moor hill, 45km from the finish, lightened up the race as one of Rubén Fernández’s seven fellow escapees, Petr Vakoc (EQS), held on to the win and the leader’s jersey.

Behind, Lobato, the new points jersey leader, clearly dominated the bunch kick, with Gorka Izagirre (9th), Fernández, Antón and Intxausti also present. Tuesday will bring a marathon stage from Cockermouth to Kelso, with lots of climbing and the Cat-2 Dingleton ascent just 25 kilometers before the line.

"Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn, very good feelings are important. Tomorrow will be better," Lobato tweeted after the stage.

“Tactically it wasn’t my most astute decision to go across, I cooked myself,” Dowsett told Cyclingweekly after the stage. “Yesterday the legs felt good, and I got across really well. I was struggling a bit when I got there [up to Williams], and I was on the back foot after that.

“Normally that move wouldn’t work, but sometimes at the Tour of Britain it’s the stuff that shouldn’t work that does, and I thought there was a chance in a breakaway today.

“But when Sky pulled the gap from three minutes to one really quickly, I figured they were playing with us. That’s where I made the decision with the team to drop back and save the legs.”