Theo Bos (Team Blanco) sprinted to victory on the 195 km second stage of the Volta ao Algarve to Lagoa.
The Blanco sprinter defeated Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack Leopard) and Bruno Matos Sancho (Carmim-Tavira) in a tight decision and moved into the race lead after teammate Paul Martens was unable to stay with the lead group when the stage was decided.
Following an avalanche of attacks early on, 10 riders were eventually unleashed by the peloton with Dmitry Kozontchuk (Katusha), Sep Vanmarcke (Blanco), Ricardo Garcia (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Manuele Boaro (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Bertjan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Dalivier Ospina (Colombia), Tomas Metcalfe (Carmim-Tavira), Hugo Sabido (La Aluminios-Antarte) and Alejandro Marque Porto (OFM-Quinta Da Lixa) all breaking clear.
The group quickly established a lead of 2:40 by the 42-kilometre mark. After 75 kilometres the bunch had allowed the gap to reach five minutes as Boaro picked up the first mountain points of the day on the 3rd category climb.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step then moved to the front soon after, when the lead had exceeded the 8 minutes mark, and started to reduce to leaders' advantage. With Vanmarcke up the road, Blanco were in an ideal position. But with 40 kilometres to go the break had just 3 minutes to play with.
Kozontchuk, Vanmarcke, Garcia, Boaron, Marque and Lindeman dropped the rest of their companions but with 10 to go the gap was down to just 30 seconds and a bunch sprint seemed inevitable.
Still, Vanmacke attacked yet again thereby dragging Marque and Boaro with him but the trio was finally reeled in inside the final 4 kilometres setting the stage for the sprint finish.
Stage 2
1 Theo Bos - Blanco 4.50.15
2 Giacomo Nizzolo - RadioShack-Lepard
3 Bruno Sancho - Carmim-Tavira
4 Jesús Herrada - Caja Rural
5 Kris Boeckmans - Vacansoleil-DCM
6 Thomas Leezer - Blanco
7 Alessandro Bzzana - UnitedHealthcare
8 Pieter Vanspeynrouck - Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise
9 Edwin Avila - Colombia
10 Michael Mørkøv - Saxo-Tinkoff
General Classification
1 Theo Bos - Blanco 9.57.30
2 Paul Martens - Blanco 0.04
3 Giacomo Nizzolo - RadioShack-Leopard 0.08
4 Tiago Machado - RadioShack-Leopard
5 Hugo Sabido - LA Alumínios-Antarte 0.09
6 Eduard Vorganov - Katusha
7 Bruno Sancho - Carmim-Tavira 0.10
8 Amets Txurruka - Caja Rural 0.11
9 Sérgio Paulinho - Saxo-Tinkoff 0.12
10 Bertjan Lindeman - Vacansoleil-DCM
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