Stephen Williams won stage two of the Tour of Britain ahead of Julian Alaphilippe.
Britain’s Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 2 of the Tour of Britain on Wednesday in the seaside resort of Redcar, where he beat Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe and Britain’s Oscar Onley in a three-way sprint.
Williams, 28, who has won his 9th career victory, his 4th this season after the Tour Down Under (one stage + the general classification) and the Flèche Wallonne, took the opportunity to take the leader’s jersey from the young Frenchman Paul Magnier, winner of the 1st stage on Tuesday, who lost 1 min 27 seconds on the line.
The race was largely animated by the Soudal-Quick Step team, with Alaphilippe and the double Belgian Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel showing great aggression. A group of about twenty men, including the British Tom Pidcock, recent Olympic mountain bike champion, and Alaphilippe, challenged the peloton for a long time before thinning out in numbers.
Evenepoel, eager to test himself before his next deadlines (the Euro and the World Championships at the end of September), then made the junction 25 km from the line to favor the designs of his teammate Alaphilippe. The latter placed several accelerations, the last one eight kilometers from the line to break away with two other riders, Oscar Onley and Stephen Williams.
The latter then imposed himself in the sprint to do the double by taking the leader’s jersey with a six-second lead over Onley and 16 over Alaphilippe. The 3rd of the six stages on Thursday between Sheffield and Barnsley will again be hilly with 2,700 m of elevation gain over 166 km.
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