Italy’s Elia Viviani claimed the second stage of Three Days of De Panne on Wednesday, edging out Germany’s Marcel Kittel and overall leader Alexander Kristoff in a sprint finish after a 211km run from Zottegem.
A seven-man breakaway breathed life into the stage, with Dutch rider Pim Ligthart the final escapee to be swallowed up around 20km from the finish.
Etixx-QuickStep set up Kittel to launch an assault for the line with around 250 metres to go, but the German sprint specialist was overtaken by a charging Elia, as the Team Sky rider notched up his second win of the season after claiming a stage on February’s Tour of Dubai.
Katusha rider Kristoff, winner of Tuesday’s opening stage and the defending champion, holds a five-second lead going into Thursday’s concluding split stages – a 111km trip around De Panne is followed by a 14.2km time-trial.
