Belgium knows how to surprise. Though the finish was in the seafront town of Knokke Heist, the organizers still managed to find a climb on which to place the finish line. This slight difficult did not prevent Tom Boonen (Etixx - Quick-Step) from taking the sprint win in front of his home crowd. 

Another local, IAM Cycling’s Jonas Van Genechten also managed to grab a good place by taking a promising 4th place. Adding to the team’s satisfaction, Matthias Brändle, who won the prologue on Wednesday, retained his first place on the leader board in spite of puncturing 20 kilometers from the finish. Brändle will start Friday again wearing the distinctive red leader’s jersey.

The Tour of Belgium does not have many stages that are perfect for the sprint kings, so this second stage was an opportunity that the sprinters were not willing to miss under any circumstances. 

“It was not an easy day,” explained Jonas Van Genechten. “We controlled it from beginning to end. There was a lot of head wind, so I think that for the guys riding on our wheels, it was a touch less complicated. Fortunately, no other teams tried to trap us, so we were allowed to do our jobs in relative calm.  The only problem was that Matthias Brändle had a puncture with 20 kilometers to go to the finish, so that disorganized us a bit. But fortunately for him and for the rest of the team, he was able to rejoin and order was restored.

"For myself, I was able to contest the sprint, which was quite dangerous because everyone felt fresh still and there was a lot of bumping shoulders. I finished fourth which is pretty good. I feel like I have gain in confidence since the Bayern Rundfahrt as well as yesterday in the prologue. I proved to myself that I can expect to do even better.”

For his part, Matthias Brändle accomplished his mission for Thursday, which was essentially to defend the leader’s jersey. 

“I must admit that I felt a bit of pressure when I punctured so close to the finish,” Brändle said. “But in those moments, it’s very important not to panic. I thank my teammates who waited for me and helped me get back into the peloton, especially Vicente Reynes who gave me his wheel. I hope I will have better luck tomorrow, though the stage looks complicated. I think that the climbs will give me more trouble than the cobbles. In any case, I will do everything I can to stay in red another day.”

Eddy Seigneur, directeur sportif along with Mario Chiesa, feels rather confident looking at the coming stages. 

“Our aim is of course to keep the jersey, and not be trapped in the final. There are cobbled sections as close as 10 kilometers from the finish, so it certainly will not be a final conducive to a mass sprint. The sectors will sort out all that ahead of time. The Belgians say it will be a mini Tour of Flanders, but I think it will be more of a mini Het Volk with the combined difficulties and a distance of 200km.”