Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) outsprinted Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) from a three-man breakaway to take victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Britain in Redcar, ahead of Oscar Onley (Team DSM-Firmenich) in third.
Alaphilippe opened up his sprint with 200m to go, having sat on the wheels of his two breakaway companions in the final 5km, but Williams was able to move past the former World Champion.
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) beat Joseph Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) in the sprint for fourth place, with Blackmore battling to preserve his GC standing.
Both sprints were from the fractured groups of a strong breakaway group which formed with 50km to go, with the final 25km of the 152.1km stage witnessing attack after counter-attack.
Williams not only took the stage victory but also moved into teh overall race lead ahead of stage 1 winner Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep), with Onley in second overall, 6 seconds back, and Alaphilppe moving onto the podium in third place, 16 seconds down.
“I’ve been to this race third time and never managed to get my hands in the air here,” Williams said after the finish.
“It was raced from far out, from 70km it was technical twisty, steep climbs,” he said.
“In the end, the goal was to get me to the end in small group, and yeah I’ll back my sprint then.”
On his GC potential, Williams said, “I’ve been in this position in a leader’s jersey before with the experience and youth and so I put my faith and trust in them, and we’ll see what happens on the road and go from there.”
Israel-Premier Tech controlled the race well, from the outset of controlling the day’s early and large breakaway. That initial breakaway was whittled down to a group containing Nickolas Zukowsky (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Callum Thornley, Dean Harvey (both Trinity Racing), Louis Sutton (Great Britain Cycling Team), Baptiste Veistroffer (AG2R Citroën U23 Team), Cade Bickmore, Laurent Gervais (both Project Echelon Racing) and James McKay (Saint Piran).
That breakaway was broken up by the short steep climbs of the day, including the 1.9km 7.9% inclines of Ugglebarnby Moor, and the breakaway was eventually joined by a chasing group containing favourites such as Evenepoel and Alaphilippe.
The group was soon cut down to nine riders – Alaphilippe, Evenepoel, Onley, Tom Donnenwirth (AG2R Citroën U23 Team), Israel-Premier Tech trio of Blackmore, Jake Stewart and Williams, Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Sutton.
Onley and Blackmore were active on the front of the breakaway with several attacks in the final 20km, but it was eventually the three-man group of Alaphilippe, Onley and Williams who formed the final successful attack.
Asked whether he would be pursuing the general classification, Evenepoel pointed to French teammate Alaphilippe as the main team focus.
“Yes, for Julian, for me there is no way,” Evenepoel said. “So I think he's in a better shape than I am for the moment. So at the moment, I'm just helping him, and tomorrow should suit him as well.”
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