Team LottoNL-Jumbo started Monday’s second stage of the Aviva Tour of Britain with six riders, but only three men in black and yellow managed to reach the finish. Brian Bulgac and Nick van der Lijke crashed out of the race, and Moreno Hofland abandoned because of a back injury that he sustained in the Vattenfall Cyclassics.

“Nick broke his left collarbone and his right shoulder got dislocated,” Sports Director Nico Verhoeven said. "Furthermore, he has deep wounds on his chin, forehead, elbow and shoulder. He’ll probably need some stitches. Brian’s arm is pretty banged up. He still needs to be checked, but it doesn’t appear fractured.”

Petr Vakoc of Etixx-QuickStep won the stage. The Czech national champion soloed in Colne after a stage of almost 160 kilometres. Vakoc is the new overall leader thanks to his victory. Steven Kruijswijk led Team LottoNL-Jumbo home. The Dutchman finished 18th, nine seconds behind Vakoc. Bram Tankink ended up 40th, at 30 seconds.

“I wasn’t entirely fresh anymore during the final kilometres,” Tankink said. “I didn’t have the legs to follow on the last uphill sprint to the line. Our trainee Koen Bouwman did a good job by attacking 60 kilometres from the line. The race exploded again that way.”

Tuesday’s third stage runs from Cockermouth to Floors Castle, Kelso, at 216 kilometres. In the second half of the stage, the riders must cover three climbs marked second category."

“We’ll take it from day-to-day now,” the ever-optimistic Tankink said. “We are still with three strong men. It’s going to be hard to control the race, but we’re going to try and show ourselves.”