Argos Shimano's Marcel Kittel won the second stage of the l'Eurometropole Tour this afternoon.
On a 178.5km stage from Antoing to Poperinge, Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Loic Desriac (Roubaix Lille Metropole), David Boucher (FDJ-Big Mat) and Justin Van Hoecke (Wallonie Bruxelles-Credit Agricole) broke after ten kilometres and went five minutes clear.
After Team Sky's Ben Swift and Ireland's Sam Bennett had abandoned, the escapers were caught with 50kms to go and attacks ensued. British Road Race Champion Ian Stannard attacked to go with twelve kilometres left but was caught eight kilometres later.
It came down to a sprint and Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) sprinted to win in a time of 4.13.50, beating French champion Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-Big Mat), Aidis Kruopis (Orica-GreenEdge) and fourth placed Stage one winner Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol) who keeps the leader's jersey.
Andrrew Fenn finished ninth, Ian Stannard was 40th, Adam Blythe 45th, Geraint Thomas 108th, Ireland's Mehdi Sohrabi 117th, Ronan McLoughlin was 152nd,