Like today's stage winner at the Dauphine, Edvald Boasson Hagen, another returning top young name in the sport is hitting his stride at just the right time ahead of the Tour de France: Cervelo TestTeam's Heinrich Haussler.
Haussler took the second stage select group bunch sprint in Sierre with a brilliantly timed sprint over Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) and two of the world's best sprinters: Oscar Freire and Gerald Ciolek.
Fabian Cancellara finished safely in the lead group and will enjoy another day in Yellow in Stage 3. His one second lead remained safe over second placed Roman Kreuziger. The overall classification remains more or less the same with only the inexplicable collapse of Liquigas' Peter Sagan to report. Sagan, who started the day in 4th overall only three seconds back of Cancellara, finished nearly 11 minutes behind Haussler in 158th place on the day.
The day's break got away early and included Milram's Matthias Russ, Mathias Frank (BMC), Joost Van Leijen (Vacansoleil), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), and Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel). The ill-fated group rode out to a seven minute gap at one point, but it was all back together in time for the finale.
The early chasing was taken up by Mark Cavendish's HTC-Columbia squad and with Fabian Cancellara's Saxo Bank team.
On the category one climb of the Simplonpass, the pace picked up, as did the rain and cold. In miserable conditions, the race summited the 2000m high pass. Aitor Hernandez took top points over the top, but at the end of the day, it would be BMC's Mathias Frank in the mountains jersey by one point over Hernandez.
Following the climb, the pace picked up even more, and the gap came down to three minutes.
The first phase of the end game came with 17 km to go on the category three climb to Valencon. Frank attacked the lead group and tore it to pieces. Behind, the field fell to pieces as well with most of the big name sprinters getting their ticket punched at the back including Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Cavendish, but also with a number of GC riders in the mix, namely Kim Kirchen and Luis Leon Sanchez.
After the climb to Valencon, the leading group was now just a trio: Russ, Frank, and Brutt. They continued to put up a good fight, but they were snared by the field with three kilometers remaining.
In the wild sprint that followed, Haussler put in a perfectly timed effort to steal the win from the strong sprinting Pablo Urtasun of Euskaltel.
Stage 2 Results
1. Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team 4:25:16
2. Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
3. Marco Marcato (Ita) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
4. Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
5. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
General Classification After Two Stages
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 4:35:37
2. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:00:01
3. Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:03
4. Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step 0:00:10
5. Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:11
6. Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:12
7. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:13
8. Jacob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank
9. Nicolas Jona Castroviejo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:14
10. Matthias Russ (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:15