Mark Renshaw of Omega Pharma Quick Step has won the second stage of the Tour Of Britain.
The stage from Knowsley Safari Park to Llandudno was 200.8kms long and started without Team Sky's Ian Stannard who has a broken scaphoid.
The action started straight away with the first sprint of the day coming after only 9.7kms and it was Movistar's Alex Dowsett who took the points ahead of Verschoor of Novo Nordisk and Scully of Madison Genesis as a group of about 25 riders tried to get away from the peloton.
There was then a crash which saw Hugh Carthy of Rapha Condor JLT forced to abandon as well as Daniel Pearson of Team GB.
King Of The Mountains leader Mark McNally formed a new group along with Ian Bibby, Chris Lawless, Lasse Hansen, Partridge and Lastras of Movistar and this group were able to get four minutes clear.
Ian Bibby took the second Yodel sprint points as it headed into North Wales but was third on the final sprint behind Hansen and Lawless in a competition where Sonny Colbrelli will keep his jersey for another day.
The first Skoda KOM climb came after 85.9kms at Glascoed with a 1.8km Category 2 climb. Mark McNally, took on Bibby in a sprint for the six points and the rider from Crosby just took the points which should keep him in the KOM jersey for another day, as he was thirteen points ahead od Bibby with twelve more points on offer.
The escapers, who took all the points on offer on the climb, were 3.16 ahead of the peloton which included Marcel Kittel in the leaders yellow jersey with 56.1kms to go on a sunny afternoon.
Team Sky were taking a long turn on the front despite road captain Berni Eisel getting a puncture.
Mark McNally took six more KOM points on the second climb at Ty Gwyn as the gap to the peloton went out to 3.07.
However, with twenty two kilometres left, the gap was down 2.16. Eight kilometres later, there was a big crash with the likes of Irish rider Jack Wilson going down.
Past Conwy Castle with a lead of 1.17 to the peloton and the front group fractured with Hansen, McNally and Lastras getting away from the others who were closed to being swept up by the pelton who were only 46 seconds behind with 8.7kms left.
Onto the final climb at Marina Drive and the gap was dropping all the time as the front trio took on a head wind.
Race leader Marcel Kittel was distanced on the climb whilst up the road with six kilometres to go, the trio was caught. Lastras tried to attack, despite having cramp and was soon over-taken by IAM Cycling's Sylvain Chavanel and Jack Bauer of Garmin.
Chavanel took the points as Sir Bradley Wiggins moved up with Michael Kwiatkowski who flew off on the descent and opened up a gap before being caught by Paul Vos and Wiggins with 2.6kms left.
Alex Dowsett was the next to attack with 1.8kms left. Chavanel followed him under the flam rouge and caught him.
Wiggins brought up the field and the sprint was on. Ben Swift went but it was Mark Renshaw of Omega Pharma Quick Step who won in 4.38.54 ahead of Swift, Bennett, Farrar and Zabel, followed by Kwiatkowski, Pineau, Terpstra, Ruffoni and Haussler.
Race leader Marcel Kittel came in well down on Renshaw's time and Mark Renshaw takes over as race leader with Ben Swift, who is second in the General Classification, leading the Points competition.
Renshaw, who leads the race by four seconds, said to Eurosport: "A great stage and a great victory.
"I am very happy and it is a bonus to be in yellow. We came here to work for Cavendish and he is getting back in to so it was great to win for him.
"Michael Kwiatkowski helped me greatly and he will probably be favourite for tomorrow but I am happy to be in the yellow jersey today."
Mark NcNally, the KOM leader said "It was grippy at the beginning. I was the last man to go and I was lucky that my best mate in Ian Bibby was able to wait for me and I thought we were going to stay away but it was not to be. "I'll give it a go tomorrow."