After yesterday’s team time trial prologue, the Tour Alsace peloton were back on open roads today for the second stage of the race. An intriguing 163 kilometre long parcours lay ahead of them as they left Colmar this afternoon, with a flatter start before the race headed into the hills in the latter half of the day.

Despite an intense opening ten kilometres, a breakaway of five riders was able to establish itself at the head of the race, building an advantage that topped out at seven minutes. With all Development Team DSM riders in the bunch, focus remained on saving energy and staying safe ahead of the tricky second half of the stage.

As the kilometres ticked by, the gap to those out front dwindled and the race was all back together at 30 kilometres to go. More counter attacks followed, with a solo rider going clear initially before three more riders bridged across to him. As a result it was a fast pace for the final 20 kilometres, with the team doing a great job of riding at the front of the peloton. The last remaining counter attacker was caught going under the flamme rouge, as the road tilted upwards. The team worked hard to try and position birthday-boy Casper van Uden on the hectic run in, who gave it his all on the punchy finish, crossing the line just outside the top ten on the stage.

“The boys did a good job today, keeping me safe and in the front over the hills,” explained Van Uden. “Going into the final we made some small mistakes which cost us the chance to go for a good result. We’ll keep trying though and are motivated to go for some more results in the coming days.”

Team DSM coach Roy Curvers continued: “The plan was to set up a sprint for Casper today. We knew it would be all about positioning at the bottom of the kicker to the line. It was a big fight there and we made some small mistakes which meant that we weren’t in the right position to start the last few hundred metres, and with that we also weren’t able to compete for the win today. We’ll learn from it and discuss it, and take that with us into the next stages here.”