Dauphiné Libéré Stage 2: Furlan beats Boonen in the sprint

Lampre's Angelo Furlan won the sprint at the end of today's 228Km stage from Nancy to Dijon. The Italian rider powered ahead of Marcus Zbert (BMC Racing Team) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in the finalf sprint for the line.

Cadel Evans who won yesterday's opening time trial remains in at the head of the general classification. All of yesterday's top 10 finishers hold their places in the general classification although with a few kilometres to go it did look as is David Millar (Garmin Slipstream)might take the stage win and jump in to the overall lead.

The Scot escaped with four kilometres to go to the finish breaking away just as the peloton swept up the day's main break of five riders (Iñaki Isasi (Euskaltel), Hector González (Fuji-Servetto), Paul Voss (Milram), Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) and Alexandre Pichot (Bbox Bouygues Telecom).

Millar's move was caught by the sprinters with just metres to go to the line. He finished 10th just behind all of the fireworks as Furlan out-powered Boonen to the line. The rest of the main contenders finished just behind the sprinters' group.

Tomorrow's third stage is another rolling affair, but shorter, the 182km from Tournus to Saint-Etienne.

The first big test for the main contenders comes on Wednesday with the 42.4Km indvidual time trial followed by a finish on top of Mont Ventoux the next day… that'll be a nice test of Tour credentials.

Top 10 Stage 2 Daupiné Libéré

1)Angelo Furlan (Lampre-NGC)
2)Marcus Zberg (BMC Racing Team)
3)Tom Boonen (Quick Step)
4)Marco Bandiera (Lampre-NGC)
5)Marcel Sieberg (Columbia-Highroad)
6)Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale)
7)Gert Steegmans (Katusha)
8)Arnaud Coyot (Caisse d'Epargne)
9)David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream)
10)Christian Knees (Milram)
 
Top 10 General classification after stage 2
 
1)Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto)
2)Alberto Contador (Astana)
3)Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
4)Sébastien Rosseler (Quick Step)
5)Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas)
6)Frantisek Rabon (Columbia-Highroad)
7)Christian Knees (Milram)
8)Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux)
9)Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d'Epargne)
10)David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream)