Cees Bol edges Jake Stewart to claim stage 2 at Tour of Britain

The Team DSM rider timed both his sprint and bike throw to the line to perfection to claim his first victory in the race, denying Stewart the same achievement in the process.

Corbin Strong (Israel–Premier Tech) placed third to extend his lead at the top of the standings and claim the leader’s jersey for another day.

The Kiwi rider now leads by eight seconds from Stewart, with Omar Fraile (INEOS Grenadiers) on the same time, and also holds the points jersey with an extended eight-point advantage.

“It was obviously a nice day for me”, said Bol. “But it was a pretty hard day. It was not an easy stage and when the final kicked off the first two climbs were on the tailwind sectors and that was actually really hard. I was on the limit of dropping and giving up. I kept fighting and then on the headwind it was a bit easier to stay in the bunch, and then over the top of the last climb my team-mates found me and put me in the best position. From there it was just the last 200 metres all out, fighting through the cramps and throwing the bike.”