Mark Cavendish once again he proved he is the man to beat in a sprint during the second stage of the Three Days of De Panne, as the indefatigable Peter Sagan was distanced in the final six kilometres. The former world champion, Cavendish, was well-protected by his teammates, including Tom Boonen, whose own form has been undermined by illness and injury.
There was a breakaway earlier in the day that included Mattia Pozzo, Niko Eeckhout, Matt Brammeier, Tim Mertens and Kevin Claeys. They were brought back, but then the peloton split, with 28 riders going off the front, including 2012 winner, Sylvain Chavanel. Again, they were brought back. Three riders once more decided to go up the road - this time it was Koen Barbé,
Alessandro Bazzana, and Dmitriy Gruzdev.
It was left to the extremely strong team of Omega Pharma-Quick Step to lead the charge and bring them back, which they did with eight kilometres left to go. It was up to Cavendish to finish the job, though, which he did to perfection, finishing ahead of Elia Viviani and Francesco Chicchi. Arnaud Démare moves into the leader's jersey having finished behind Peter Sagan in the sprint the day before.
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