Ruslan Tleubayev has had a quiet start to his professional career at Astana but today he showed the kind of talent that allowed him to join the Kazakh team. Being the only one from the team to make the selection on the Kemmelberg, he used his fast sprint to take a great top 5 result.

Last year Ruslan Tleubayev turned professional at Astana but until now he has mostly been working in a domestique role. Today he was expected to again support his teammates in the second stage of the Driedaagse van De Panne but the stage panned out in an unexpected way.

The stage usually ends in a bunch sprint in Koksijde and so Astana set out with the mission of delivering Andrea Guardini at the finish. When Omega Pharma-Quick Step split things on the Kemmelberg, however, Tleubayev suddenly found himself as the lone Astana rider in a 32-rider front group.

Tleubayev excelled in sprints in his youth career and so was ready to mix it up with the great sprinters that included the likes of Arnaud Demare, Alexander Kristoff, Sacha Modolo and Marcel Kittel. The Kazakh positioned himself well and even managed to take the wheel of eventual stage winner Modolo away from Kittel.

In the end, an unfortunate incident forced the Kazakh to touch his brakes but he still managed to sprint to an excellent fourth in the high-level field.

“On the Kemmelberg Quick Step attacked and split the peloton," he said. "With 22 guys in the front I was alone from our team going full gas to the finish.

“I knew to follow Modolo in the sprint, and from 1k to go I was always on his wheel. But then the FDJ rider was smashing everybody left and right and I had to use my brakes to avoid a crash."

Unfortunately, it was a bittersweet day for Astana as one of their key riders Francesco Gavazzi abandoned the race. The Italian crashed yesterday and left the race around the midpoint of the stage.

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.