Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) remembered his close friend Wouter Weylandt as he took his first victory since the Belgian was tragically killed in last month’s Giro d’Italia. As he crossed the line at the head of the bunch sprint, at the end of the 177km stage from Eindhoven to Sittard/Geleen, the American made a ‘W’ shape with both hands in tribute.
Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) was second, with Adam Blythe (Omega Pharma-Lotto) third.
“It was a very important victory,” said Farrar after the race, “after the last month, which has been very, very tough for me.”
While he clearly dedicated his victory to his late friend, the American sprinter did not want to elaborate further.
“It’s still hard to talk about it,” he explained.
The race set off from the start under pouring rain and the main attack of the day came from Jens Debusschere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Anthony Roux (FDJ), Baptiste Planckaert (Landbouwkrediet), Ronan van Zandbeek (Skil-Shimano) and Cornelius van Ooijen (Cycling Team Jo Piels). The quintet was only allowed to get a maximum of three and a half minutes lead though, and was pulled back with 10km to go, midway through the stage’s finishing circuit.
On a small climb with 9km to go, a move from Anthony Roux (FDJ) was countered by Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), who led over the top ahead of Dutch champion Niki Terpstra (Quick Step).
The two riders led a group of six into the closing stages, but the peloton was determined that the stage would finish in a sprint and so closed them down. Gilbert tried to go alone in the final kilometre but there was no escape and Farrar led the rest of the sprinters over the line, ahead of Feillu and Blythe.
The majority of the peloton finished together in the same time as Farrar, including most of the top performers in the stage one time trial. Bonus seconds mean that Farrar jumps to third place, but Patrick Gretsch (HTC-Highroad) holds on to his race lead.
Result stage 2
1. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Cervélo
2. Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM
3. Adam Blythe (GBr) Omega Pharma-Lotto
4. Mark Renshaw (Aus) HTC-Highroad
5. Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano
6. Davide Appollonio (Ita) Team Sky
7. Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Leopard Trek
8. Theo Bos (Ned) Rabobank
9. Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
10. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ
Standings after stage 2
1. Patrick Gretsch (Ger) HTC-Highroad
2. Alex Rasmussen (Den) HTC-Highroad @ 3s
3. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Cervélo @ 4s
4. Alex Dowsett (GBr) Team Sky @ 6s
5. Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank @ 10s