As expected, Danny Van Poppel relinquished the leader's jersey in today's uphill finish on the second stage of the Tour de Luxembourg but his Trek team is not out of the battle for the overall victory. Home favourite Frank Schleck finished solidly in a finale that was too explosive for him and is now ready to go for glory in tomorrow's queen stage.

It was a typical day at the Skoda Tour of Luxembourg: an undulant parcours that annihilated legs. However, unlike yesterday’s flat finish the 157.4-kilometer stage two ended on a steep uphill, an arduous ending for Danny van Poppel to keep hold of the leader’s jersey.  

On the climb Matti Breschel (Tinkoff-Saxo) pocketed the win with an explosive move near the top that no one could match. Jean-Pierre Drucker (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) finished third and seized the leader’s jersey from Danny van Poppel. Fränk Schleck came across the line eight seconds later for 19th place.

“Matti attacked with 400m to go," Schleck said. "He attacked strong, with a lot of power; it’s his kind of climb. I was in the front, top 10, but you must be in first line straight away on this kind of climb.”

It was a four-man breakaway that delivered the action for most of the day. Trek Factory Racing again assumed the duties that come with defending a leader’s jersey and slowly drew back the gap to the quartet up the road. As the steep finish climb neared Tinkoff-Saxo aided the hunt; the escapees were captured with eight kilometers remaining and the struggle for position raged into the one kilometer ascent with a 13% gradient.

“We took a leadership position today; we did not ask for help," Schleck said. "We fought all day and we took the race in our hands. The whole team was really strong – especially Fabio [Silvestre] and Calvin [Watson], again they did an amazing job. 

“In the last kilometer I had good position – top 5, top 10 – but with 200 meters to go the crash by Alex Kirsch [Leopard Development Team], and also a crash just before the last corner, lost me some positions both times. But it’s all-okay for tomorrow.”

Fränk Schleck sits in 15th place overall (+35”) heading into the final two, and by far hardest, stages of the Skoda Tour of Luxembourg where the overall classification will face it's biggest test.