Meyer masters the breakaway to take stage two at the Tour of Britain

Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) won the second stage of the Tour of Britain, surviving to the finish line in Barnstaple after spending the whole day in the breakaway.

The breakaway group of five riders gradually whittled down over the climbs coming into the final, leaving just Meyer and Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) to battle it out for the victory.

Meyer used his experience and turn of speed in the closing metres to hold off a chasing group by a couple of seconds and sprint to the stage win.

Meyer now heads into tomorrow’s third stage in second place overall but on the same time as the new leader Tonelli and as the leader of the points classification.

“It was tough conditions and in the end it was a great bike race to finish like that, to come down to the last kilometre and throw my hands in the air is really cool”, said Meyer. “It is a bit of a shock and a bit of a surprise to take the win today.

“We will see what the next days bring. We have Caleb Ewan who was second yesterday and is in good form sprinting so for the sprint stages we will obviously look to him and we will see what I can do for the rest of the tour.”

Tour of Britain 2018 – stage 2 results (Cranbrook – Barnstaple):

General classification after stage 2: