After several near-misses in the recent Etoile de Besseges, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) has finally got the ball rolling in this week's Tour Mediteraneen. After winning yesterday's windy first stage, the German doubled his tally today when he survived the Col du Petit Galibier before launching his powerful sprint to win another stage and defend his overall lead.

With six races and 6 top 10 results but still no win, John Degenkolb left last week's Etoile de Besseges highly frustrated as he had come agonizingly close to his first win of the season on a number of occasion. In this week's Tour Mediteraneen, he has made up for the near-misses by dominating the first two stages of the race.

After having won yesterday's very winning opening stage, Degenkolb doubled his tally on the second day when he emerged as the strongest in the sprint that decided the second stage of the race. The German made use of his strong team to control proceedings and manage to survive the late Col du Petit Galibier before launching his powerful sprint to hold off Yannick Martinez (Europcar) and Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne) in the sprint.

Again the win played a decisive role as the peloton split in two due to a hard acceleration of the Ag2r-La Mondiale team and with the Petit Galibier whittling down the peloton even further, it was a reduced group that arrived at the sprint in Rousset. Several riders tried to escape in the finale but Giant-Shimano managed to keep things under control for the German star.

There are no bonus seconds in the Tour Mediteraneen and so Degenkolb remains the overall leader on a count back and he now faces a difficult defence of his jersey tomorrow. In the morning, he will face a 63km mostly flat stage that has a category 2 climb just 7.7km from the finish but the hard test will come in the afternoon's 18.2km rather hilly time trial that will give the first indication of who will win this year's Mediterranean race.

A lumpy stage

The 170.6km second stage took the riders from Cadolive to Rousset over a lumpy course that had two category 3 climbs in the first part of the stage but was otherwise mostly flat. However, the Col du Galibier, summiting just 25.6km from the finish was set to produce some spectacle ahead of the fast run-in to the finish.

Yesterday there was no big fight to be involved in the early action but with the outcome of today's stage far more uncertain, a lot of riders had intentions of going on the attack. Several riders tried their hand in the early part of the race but the first riders to get a significant gap were Andrea Zordan (Androni) and Evaldas Siskevicius (La Pomme Marseille).

Nocentini abandons

The duo built up a 20-second gap but the peloton had no intentions of letting them go. Despite being reinforced by Florian Vachon (Bretagne), the break was doomed and after 14km, the race was back together.

Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) who had crashed yesterday, found the going tough due to the fast start and was quickly dropped, later abandoning the race. While he fell behind, Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ) took off and he was quickly joined by Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia).

The gap grows

This proved to be the right combination and the duo started to build up a solid gap. When Pantano beat Veikkanen at the top of the first climb at the 37.5km mark, they were 6.05 ahead of the group which was led over the top by Juan Pablo Valencia (Colombia) who had started the day in 2nd in the mountains classification.

While Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek) had a harmless crash, the front duo continued to open their advantage which reached a massive 8.10 at the 65km mark. At this point, Giant-Shimano started to take control, with Thierry Hupond and Tom Peterson again assuming their positions on the front.

Belletti crashes

The gap started to come down gradually but with 60km to go, the front duo still enjoyed a lead of 6.05. At this point, Manuel Belletti (Androni) crashed but he was quickly back in the bunch.

On the day's second climb, it was again Pantano who led Veikkanen over the top while in the peloton Caja Rural decided to up the pace. Having scored no points on the first climb, mountains leader Fernando Grijalba needed to add to his tally and the Spanish team made sure that their neo-professional crossed the line in 3rd position.

Ag2r attack in the crosswind

The high pace meant that the gap had come down to 4.05 at the top and most would have expected that Giant-Shimano would now again take over the chasing duties. However, Ag2r had different plans, with the French team accelerating hard on the descent.

Veikkanen led Pantano across the line at the intermediate sprint with 37.6km to go while Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r) was the first rider from the peloton as he worked hard for his team on the front. A drama now unfolded as the peloton again hit a windy section, causing a split in the main group.

The break is caught

A fierce pursuit between the two groups now ensued and this spelled the end for the breakaway. On the Petit Galibier, Pantano attacked on his own and managed to stay clear for a while but as several unsuccessful attacks were launched from the splintering peloton, it was back together on the lower slopes of the ascent.

Fabio Duarte (Colombia) took off and he was joined by his Cyril Gautier (Europcar). Several riders tried to bridge across but had no success.

Pantano scores more points

Duarte crested the summit in first position while Pantano had enough energy left after his breakaway to take third ahead of Mikael Cherel (Ag2r) and Yury Trofimov (Katusha). With the points earned, he secured himself the lead in the mountains classification.

The front duo was brought back on the descent, opening the door for a flurry of new attacks. New splits occurred in the peloton in what was a very fast part of the stage.

Sicard takes off on his own

Romain Sicard (Europcar) took off when the peloton had hit the flat run-in to the finish and he stayed away on his own with a 10-second gap for a long time. As he was about to get caught, he was joined by Trofimov but the duo was brought back with 8km to go.

All was now set for a sprint finish and the sprint teams kept the pace high all the way to the line. In the end, no one had any match to Degenkolb's burst of speed, with the German adding another win to yesterday's triumph.