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Rabobank's Reus takes lead in British tour from Garmin's Sutton
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Australia's Chris Sutton surrendered the yellow jersey at the end of the second stage of the Tour of Britain on Sunday but still insisted his weekend could not have gone any better.
The Garmin-Slipstream rider followed-up his first stage win with ninth place on day two from Darlington to Gateshead as Dutchman Kai Reus (Rabobank), a former junior world champion, won his first stage since a 2007 crash that left him in a coma.
Reus' comfortable nine-second margin of victory was enough to earn him yellow and Sydney's Sutton admitted his opening exploits in York had taken their toll.
"The day went pretty well for me considering how much effort I put into the first day," said Sutton. "I was never going to go out there and race from the front if I could help it but the lads in the team all worked hard for me and things are looking good.
"We were down to five riders today after Ricardo Van De Velde's crash on Saturday. It's very hard to control the race with only five in your team so it was a case of going out there and doing as well as we could and that's what we did. We didn't have much help from the rest of the field so I'm happy with the weekend's work and we're in a good position."
More than 3,000 people turned out on Sunday to watch a dramatic second day as Reus overhauled Sutton to take the yellow jersey.
Reus, along with Tanel Kangert and Thomas De Gendt, broke away from the peloton with 42km remaining and he held off their challenge to romp home.
But Sutton believes handing over the lead could play into his hands.
"I'm feeling really good at the moment and everything is looking up," he said. "It's definitely a case of job done this weekend and I'm still well up there in the general classification.
"Having the yellow jersey taken off me might actually help to take a bit of the pressure off and help me relax and ride naturally. That's what I'm good at and I'm excited about the rest of the week."
