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Farrar wins another at Eneco
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American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) won the second stage of the Eneco Tour on Thursday, further consolidating his hold on the overall lead.
Farrar won a field sprint at the end of a 178.1km stage from Ardooie to Brussels, adding to the sprint win he earned in stage 1 on Wednesday. Farrar outsprinted Yauheni Hutarovich (Française des Jeux) and Columbia-HTC’s Edvald Boasson Hagen for the win in Brussels.
The stage was marked by several breakaway attempts, the last of which was reeled in just 500 meters from the line.
"I never thought it was going to end in a sprint," confessed Farrar. "The race was uncontrollable, I was reduced to playing a hand of poker in betting on a possible bunching up."
Farrar, who now has a 13-second lead over Boasson Hagen in the overall standings, said he wants to keep the jersey all the way to the end of the Tour.
"I'm going to fight 100 percent to hold onto the lead," he said.
Friday's third stage is a 158km run from Niel to Hasselt but one rider who will not be lining up for it is Andreas Kloden, the German Astana leader having fractured his left wrist in a fall 44km from the finish.
Another rider ruled out was Spain's two-time winner Jose Ivan Gutierrez, who complained of stomach problems.
