Having crashed out of the Giro d'Italia, Kanstantsin Siutsou is using this week's Route du Sud to convince the Sky management to select him for the Tour de France. Today he moved himself closer to the roster by finishing with the likes of Alejandro Valverde and Michael Rogers in the queen stage.

Kanstantsin Siutsou and Ian Boswell climbed strongly to finish inside the top 10 on stage two of the Route du Sud as Nicolas Roche claimed the win in Val Louron.

Siutsou finished in the elite front group, 45 seconds down on the day’s winner and the Belarusian now moves into the top 10 alongside Boswell heading into the final day.

Team Sky were active from the start of the day as Nathan Earle forced his way into the early breakaway on a mountainous stage two, and the Australian managed to stay clear over the famous Col du Tourmalet.

Roche won the stage after jumping out of a reduced bunch on the final climb of the day to take his first win of the season and move into the race lead.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider surged clear inside the last five kilometres on the slopes of the Val Louron and the Irishman held off the chasers to win by 45 seconds ahead of his team-mate Michael Rogers, who edged out Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) on the line.

Siutsou finished alongside the main contenders in seventh, while Boswell arrived home 37 seconds behind his Team Sky team mate in ninth.

Sports Director Kurt-Asle Arvesen was pleased with the team's progress over some epic terrain on day two.

"Kosta and Ian were really good again today," said the Norwegien. "We’ve seen Kosta many times before and know he can perform at this level, but it’s great to see Ian up there fighting.

"Nathan was out there the whole day in the breakaway. He was riding really strongly. They got caught on the Col d’Aspin but he kept fighting and came back to the first group. He was able to help Ian and Kosta with bidons which was good to see. I think we should also give a special mention to Bernie (Eisel). He put in a really big effort, especially on such a tough parcours. He kept on fighting and got back on to help the guys as much as possible. He’s such an important and big team player.

"The parcours doesn’t look too bad tomorrow when you look at the profile but it will be a really tough stage. We’re all looking forward to it and there’s a great atmosphere on the team bus."