Tour des Fjords, stage 2 – Lionel Marie – Leigh Howard can aim for the podium in the overall classification –

THE QUOTE

From Lionel Marie: “Leigh Howard can definitely aim for the podium in the overall classification for the Tour des Fjords.”

THE ANALYSIS

Again offered by Lionel Marie: “Today we played our cards well, even if in the end Leigh was left alone for the final sprint. Roger Kluge and especially Stef Clement drove the peloton in order to recapture the breakaway of five riders since neither Katusha nor BMC came to help us. The main thing is that we managed to keep the yellow jersey.”

THE EXPLANATION

Given by Leigh Howard. “I tried to anticipate Kristoff’s sprint, but he was really just too strong. I kept the jersey, and that’s the most important thing, especially in view of all the great work my teammates did. I hope that I am feeling even better for the two climbs scheduled for Friday’s very long stage, since I had to dig into reserves to get through today’s difficult stage in order to keep my position.”

THE FACT OF THE DAY

Before the start of the second stage today, the jury of commissioners gave all the riders who finished more or less together on the first stage the same time as a result of the confusion that the peloton suffered in the final moments of the first stage. The final times were taken on the first passage of the finish line at kilometer 121. The only bonuses that still remained resulted from the placings in the stage sprints.

THE NUMBER

2 – That is the total number of seconds that Leigh Howard holds in front of the second stage winner, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), as a result of bonus seconds earned from his stage victory.

THE UNLUCKY

Suffering from a terrible cold, Sondre Holst Enger was missing the required strength and reserves to continue, so had to abandon during the second stage.

THE MENU FOR THE DAY

The third stage of the Tour des Fjords will be the longest of the week with a whopping 221.2 kilometers on tap. Two climbs will peak out at 1200 meters above sea level, but the last climb is situated 80 kilometers from the finish, so a bunch sprint is not an unlikely scenario.

Race Pictures – tourdesfjords.no