Giant Alpecin's John Degenkolb has won the second stage and take over the lead of the Bayern Rundfahrt race in Germany.
Irishman Sam Bennett was in the lead after beating Nacer Bouhanni and John Degenkolb in the first stage sprint and led out the peloton for a 179.5km stage from Waldsassen to Selb.
Niyonshuti of MTN Qhubeka, Patrick Schelling of IAM Cycling, Marco Minnaard of Wanty Groupe and Yannick Mayer of the Bike Aid team were the ones who broke away and were joined by Koch and Thomas Koep.
They took a lead of 3.46 after fifty kilometres but with forty kilometres to go, the break had split and Minnaard, Koep, Schelling had a lead of 1.05 on Niyonshuti and 3.35 on the peloton.
With twenty kilometres to go, the gap back to the peloton was two minutes but five kilometres later and Niyonshuti was caught and the three out front were only fifty five seconds clear.
Onto the closing circuit around Selb with eleven kilometres remaining and the peloton were closing in. Two kilometres later and Minnaard, Koep and Schelling were caught and the race came down to a sprint.
In that sprint, John Degenkolb of Giant Alpecin went and took the win in 4.25.06 ahead of Nacer Bouhanni, Enrike Sainz and Sam Bennett of Bora Argon 18, followed by Navardauskas, Willwohl, Vangenechten, Gasparotto and van Rensburg.
Degenkolb now leads the race.
Source: DSG
