German rider John Degenkolb won the second stage of the Tour of Spain in a nail-biting sprint yesterday at the end of a 181-kilometre ride from the northern city Pamplona.

Degenkolb, 23, riding for Argentina’s Team Argos-Shimano, achieved his first victory on a major Tour by a hair’s breadth in packed sprint for the line in Viana.

But Spaniard Jonathan Castroviejo, of Team Movistar, kept the overall leader’s red jersey after snatching first place in the opening 16.5km team time-trial at the start of the Tour the previous day.

Degenkolb, winner of the Tour of Picardie this year, crossed the line in the mostly flat second stage just ahead of Australian Allan Davis, of the Orica-Greenedge team, and Briton Ben Swift, of Team Sky.

Earlier in the race, a trio of Russian rider Mikhail Ignatyev (Katusha) and Spaniards Javier Chacon (Andalucia) and Javier Francisco Aramendia (Caja) took the lead.

The three cyclists broke away from the pack from the sixth kilometre, building a lead of up to five minutes before being caught towards the end.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.