Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels) won stage 2 of the Arctic Race of Norway, beating overall leader Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) into second place in a bunch finish in Svolvær. Mindful of the headwind in the finishing straight, Coquard parked himself on the wheel of Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) ahead of the final corner and allowed his fellow countryman to open his effort from distance before careering past him in the final 100 metres. Van der Poel, such an impressive winner of Thursday's opening stage, tried gamely to get back on terms, but the Dutchman was unable to overhaul Coquard, who claimed his eighth victory of the season. Laporte held on for third ahead of August Jensen (Israel Cycling Academy), while Louis Bendixen (Team Coop) took fifth.ADVERTISEMENT "For the finale, we had only Kevin Reza and Jeremy Lecroq, but Kevin is amazing for the lead-out. He put me on the wheel of Christophe Laporte, and I opened my sprint after the last corner," said Coquard. "Mathieu van der Poel is very, very strong but today, I was sure that if I was in a good position, then it was going to be possible to win and to beat Van der Poel." Thanks to the six-second time bonus he picked up for placing second on the stage, Van der Poel extends his overall lead to nine seconds over Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team). Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X Norwegian Development Team) moves up to third overall, also at nine seconds, while Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) is a further two seconds back in fourth. How it unfolded
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