Mads Pedersen outsprints Mathieu van der Poel to take stage 2 at the 2024 Tour de Luxembourg

Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen has taken victory on stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de Luxembourg as Mathieu van der Poel retains the overall race lead.

Before the TV cameras even started rolling, there was early drama as a big crash took out a number of riders, including most notably, Lidl-Trek leader and Danish World Championship hopeful, Mattias Skjelmose being forced to abandon. In terms of the racing though, 2 riders moved clear initially, but after one quickly dropped back, only Alexandre Kess remained out front.

Heading into the final 30km though, Kess had been caught and the peloton had full control at the head of the race. A number of riders attempted attacks between then and the finale, including King of the Mountains leader Pepijn Reinderink but at around 4km to go, Juan Ayuso launched a big attack. Nevertheless, into the final kilometre, the bunch remained largely together. In the sprint for victory, Mads Pedersen opened things up and held onto victory ahead of race leader Van der Poel.