Andre Greipel won the second stage of the Tour of Belgium from Danny van Poppel to make it a second win from two in the five stage event.

“Two out of two is of course a good result,” Greipel said afterwards. “The guys did an awesome job, especially in the chase on those last three escapees. In the sprint I couldn’t shift my gear to eleven, so I couldn’t go full from the start. Still I could come out. The weather wasn’t good today, which didn’t make the job any easier, but everyone did their best to defend my leader’s jersey.”

Due to the time bonuses awarded on the line Greipel enlarged his overall lead to ten seconds over Boonen, but nonetheless the German was under no illusions with regards to his chances of keeping it tomorrow.

“Tomorrow in the time trial it’s only following the course from start to finish,’ he said. “With that time trial and the stages this weekend it won’t be evident for me to defend the jersey. The next days we’ll look more to other guys in the team, depending on who’s performing best in the time trial.”

The initial attack during the 181km stage from Knokke-Heist to Ninove came from Arman Kamyshev (Astana), Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), Stijn Steels (Creland – Euphony), Alexandre Pichot (Europcar) and Sebastien Turgot (Europcar) with 143km to go. Over the next 55km they widened the gap to 4:55 but Greipel’s Lotto Belisol took charge at the head of the peloton and the lead was cut down to 3:31 with 60km to go.

Ignatiev was the sole leader as the riders started on the Bosberg ascent (famous from the Tour of Flanders) but was reeled in to leave Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) to lead the last 10km but they were brought to heel inside the final kilometre to leave a three-way sprint that Greipel took.

As the sprinters came into the finishing straight Boonen had been ideally placed on Greipel’s wheel and the Belgian champion was the one to initiate the final dash for the line. Subsequently Greipel and van Poppel went either side of Boonen as they approached the finish, though, and both managed to just throw their bikes ahead on the line.

Result stage 2
1. André Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol
2. Danny van Poppel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM
3. Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
4. Alexander Porsev (Rus) Katusha Team
5. Adrien Petit (Fra) Cofidis
6. Simone Ponzi (Ita) Team Astana
7. Alexei Tsatevich (Rus) Katusha Team
8. Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Team Astana
9. Niki Terpstra (Ned) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
10. Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Argos-Shimano

General classification after stage 2
1. André Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol
2. Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 10”
3. Danny van Poppel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM 14”
4. Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Argos-Shimano 16”
5. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team 17”
6. Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto-Belisol
7. Niki Terpstra (Ned) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 18”
8. Pieter Jacobs (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise
9. Nikolas Maes (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 19”
10. Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Team Astana