Peter Sagan has decided to follow his usual pattern of abandoning the Driedaagse van De Panne before the end of the race. After winning the opening stage, the Slovakian decided to take it easy in today's stage before heading home to finalize his preparations for the Tour of Flanders.

In 2012 and 2013, Peter Sagan lined up at the Driedaagse van De Panne to use the race to keep his racing legs going ahead of the Tour of Flanders and he has followed a very similar pattern on both occasions. After winning the opening stage, he has quietly relinquished the leader's jersey on stage two before leaving the race before the final two half-stages.

This year he again won the opening stage when he failed to deliver the win to teammate Oscar Gatto as planned and today he again preferred to stay safe in the second stage when things split on the Kemmelberg. The Slovakian didn't try to follow the best and ended up in the third group on the road.

Unlike the past two years, Sagan decided to pull the plug a bit earlier as he didn't finish the stage. Instead, he will now rest before lining up as one of the favourites for the Tour of Flanders.

In the absence of Sagan, Gatto again played a major role in the stage as the Italian was part of a dangerous three-rider breakaway with Niki Terpstra and Guillaume van Keirsbulck in the finale. Having been caught just 3km from the line, he had noting left for the final sprint but stays in second on GC, just one second behind new leader Gert Steegmans.

Starting at 10.15 and 14.25 CEST respectively you can follow tomorrow's first two stageson CyclingQuotes.com/live. You can read our preview here.