Giacomo Nizzolo (Radioshack) showed that he is much more than just a pure sprinter by surviving some very tough climbing in the final part of the second stage of the Tour de Suisse before outsprinting Marko Kump (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) and Paul Martens (Blanco) on the line. Jonathan Hivert (Sojasun) finished in the 27-rider lead group and takes over the leader's jersey from teammate Engoulvent who lost more than 12 minutes

The Tour of Luxembourg is the big home race for Radioshack Leopard and the team has lined up an exciting roster containing some of its brightest talents. One of those, sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo, showed why he is one of the most exciting young Italian sprinters by winning today's second stage in a sprint from a 27-rider front group.

The stage was a tough one as it was rounded off by two laps on a finishing circuit with a hard climb. Hence, it could be a day for a successful breakaway and the first part of the stage was raced at a rapid pace as attacks went thick and fast.

Jay Thomson (MTN) - one of yesterday's escapees - Kevin Hulsmans (Vini Fantini), Karsten Kroon (Saxo-Tinkoff), Marc Wauters (Vacansoleil) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) were some of the early attackers but none of them got anywhere. Instead, the tight move was formed by Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil), Mattia Pozzo (Vini Fantini) and Sebastien Turgot (Europcar) who escaped after 20km of racing.

The trio was allowed to build up a gap of 5.30 while Pozzo made sure to crest the summit of the climbs in first position to take over the lead in the mountains classification. However, the peloton started to chase and with 50km to go, the advantage was down to just 3 minutes.

De Gendt had made a late decision to race in Luxembourg to accumulate more race kilometres prior to the Tour and the Belgian had planned to leave the race after today's stage. He made sure to make his mark before he planned exit as he attacked solo and left his companions behind.

The peloton was now in full pursuit and the tough terrain saw overall leader Jimmy Engoulvent (Sojasun), yesterday's winner Alexander Porsev (Katusha) and KOM leader Duber Quintero (Colombia) drop off. With 27km to go, the chasing duo had been caught, and De Gendt was now only 50 seconds ahead of the main group with an rider move in between.

With around 20km to go, it was all back together but not for long. Jan Bakelants (Radioshack) made an attack and he was joined by Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), Bruno Pires (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Steve Chainel (Ag2r).

As they started the final lap on the 13km circuit, the group was caught, and Katusha now set a furious pace. Porsev is not their only sprinter as Alexey Tsatevich is also a fast finisher and even climbs rather well. The Russian team wanted to win to prove that they have more than one fast Russian in their ranks.

On the final climb, the peloton broke into two pieces and Radioshack quickly realized that they were in a good position. Nizzolo had made the selection and so the Luxembourg team worked hard to keep the advantage.

With 3km to go, the team even tried to send one rider up the road but the move was unsuccessful. Instead it came down to a sprint from which Nizzolo emerged as the fastest. He beat Marko Kump and Paul Martens in the final dash to the line.

Jonathan Hivert finished 7th but with Danny Van Poppel (Vacansoleil) and his teammate Engoulvent both dropped, it was enough to move him from 3rd into 1st. He leads Matthias Brändle (IAM) by 2 seconds while Martens is a further second behind in 3rd.

Hivert will try to defend his lead in tomorrow's queen stage which once again finishes with a circuit containing an even tougher climb than today's.

Result:

1. Giacomo Nizzolo 4.10.24

2. Marko Kump

3. Paul Martens

4. Marco Marcato

5. Manuel Belletti

6. Vincent Jerome

7. Jonathan Hivert

8. Alexey Tsatevich

9. Manuele Boaro

10. Egoitz Garcia

General classification:

1. Joantahn Hivert 8.54.47

2. Matthias Brändle +0.02

3. Paul Martens +0.03

4. Damien Gaudin +0.05

5. Bob Jungels +0.06

6. Marco Marcato

7. Robert Gesink +0.07

8. Maarten Wynants +0.08

9. Sebastien Hinault +0.09

10. Jan Bakelants