Skoda Tour de Luxembourg

Pepijn Reinderink was a man on a mission Thursday afternoon, when we attacked from the peloton as soon as the peloton rolled out of the neutral zone for the 155km stage two to Schifflange. Just like on the previous day, he zipped away and established a breakaway, this time together with Alexandre Kees (Luxembourg National Team), putting three minutes into the chasers.

The 22-year-old claimed maximum points on the two ranked climbs of the day – Côte de Zittig and Montée de Steinsel – thus extending his lead at the top of the classification. After cresting the last of hills, Reinderink returned to the peloton, which was once again aiming for a bunch sprint. Inside the final 15 kilometers, Soudal Quick-Steo’s neo-pro gave it another go, together with Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise) – one last roll of the dice which helped him stay up the road until the final four kilometers, when they were pegged back.

The stage eventually came down to a mass gallop, won by Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), while Pepijn made sure of remaining the custodian of the black jersey going into the third stage of the race, which will be packed with eight classified ascents.

Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images