Egan Bernal (Androni Giacattoli-Sidermec) was able to attack the final climb and create separation from the rest of the field during Stage 2 and was rewarded with an impressive stage victory, which put him in the overall lead at the 2017 Sibiu Cycling Tour.
Moritz Fussnegger (0711 Cycling) took the opening kilometers out hard, and was able to capture the first mountains classification points of the day on the climb to Cisnadioara ahead of Ziga Horvat (Adria Mobil) and Leonardo Canepa (GM Europa Ovini).
At the first intermediate sprint checkpoint in Cisnadie, Rick van Breda (Monkey Town Continental) was able to raise the tempo beat out Hugo Velazquez (Tusnad) and German Tivani (Unieuro Trevigiani-Hemus 1896) at the line.
A break group of German Tivani, Leonardo Canepa, Nikodemus Holler (Bike Aid), Ivar Slik (Monkey Town Continental), Emil Vinjebo (Giant-Castelli), and Martin Haring (Dukla Banska Bystrica) lead the peloton by 2 minutes at the Sacadate climb, where Tivani captured the mountains classification points.
By the time the lead group reached Vard, 100 kilometers into the stage, the gap on the peloton had expanded to 4 minutes 30 seconds.
35 kilometers from the finish, Canepa fell off the pace of the front group as the lead group dwindled down to five riders.
On the final intermediate sprint of the day, Tivani beat out Slik and Holler to secure the points.
The lead group began to break up as they began their climb up to Balea Lac.
9 kilometers from the summit finish, the final rider from the original lead group was caught as the peloton took hold of the race.
With 5 kilometers to go on the day, Bernal made his attack and quickly began to build his gap on the rest of the field.
UnitedHealthcare riders Jonathan Clarke and Janier Acevedo, along with Colin Stussi (Roth-Akros) began an attack to chase down Bernal with 3 kilometers left, but their surge proved too late and Bernal continued to increase his lead on the field.
Ultimately, Bernal was able to solo to victory, 1 minute 22 seconds ahead of the second place finisher, as Colin Stussi beat out Jonathan Clarke to the summit by a 2 second margin to take second on the stage.
For his impressive finish on Stage 2, Egan Bernal will wear the overall leaders jersey on Stage 3 with a 1 minute 25 second lead over second place rider Colin Stussi.
Moritz Fussnegger will be the leader of the mountains classification going into Stage 3.
After Colin Stussi's impressive second place finish on the stage, Swiss squad Team Roth-Akros will take the lead in the team classification 1 minute 37 seconds ahead of second place team UnitedHealthcare.
Stage 3 will take the riders 212 kilometers from the city of Sibiu to the summit of Palitinis at an altitude of 1440 meters.
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