August climbs into race lead

AJ August rounded off a strong team performance by sprinting to victory on stage two’s summit finish to take the overall lead at Czech Tour.

August was led out by Ben Turner and Jack Haig before attacking to reduce the lead group, then kicking again to seal the victory.

The win sees August move into the race lead, holding a two second advantage over Alessandro Fancellu (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) with two stages remaining.

Earlier, Netcompany INEOS had taken control of the stage and were keeping the early break in check - ensuring they did not gain a large advantage.

Good work from Ben Swift, Oscar Rodriguez and Bob Jungels on the front of the peloton ensured the stage win was in contention on the climbing stage, with the finale being the category one test to Ještěd.

The 15km climb was tackled cautiously by the bunch, with August well protected as the steeper parts were in the closing kilometres.

This is when the team ramped the pace up, providing the platform for August to attack in the final kilometre, reduce the group, the kick for the line to earn his third victory of the season.

The 20 year old will wear the leader’s jersey for another GC test on Saturday, which ends in a 13.2km climb to Dlouhé Stráně. 

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AJ August 

"We let the break have the same gap for the while, so it was all under control.

“It was a long climb, but the gradients weren’t really steep until the last kilometres. We had to ride a steady pace and then go al out in the last kilometres.

"The atmosphere was incredible, the amount of fans and the support, it made the pain on the legs a little bit better.

"We still have Embret close on GC so we have two cards to play."