Visma | Lease a Bike goes all-in for Uijtdebroeks, but another Belgian wins: Lecerf takes stage 2 at Czech Tour

Day two of the Czech Tour (UCI 2.1) was billed as the first big GC test. While stage 1 ended in a bunch sprint, won by Soudal–Quick Step’s American sprinter Luke Lamperti, stage 2 promised anything but a sprint. With an uphill summit finish, the first significant time gaps were expected.

Before the final climb, the riders faced one major obstacle in the heart of the Central European country: the Albrechtice u Lanškrouna climb (4.7 km at 5.1%). The breakaway group, featuring Tim Glossner (Benotti Berthold), Kyrylo Tsarenko (Solution Tech–Vini Fantini), Dutch duo Jost van de Streek and Casper van der Woude (both Metec–SOLARWATT), Jan Kaspar (TUFO–Pardus Prostejov), Matej Zahalka (Elkov–Kasper), Konrad Waliniak (Voster), and Zétény Szijártó (United Shipping), fought for the mountain points there.

Those went to Zahalka, who saw his and his fellow breakaway riders' advantage topped out at five minutes. The Czech rider, along with Tsarenko and Waliniak, was the last survivor of the original move, but as the peloton approached the foot of the final climb, the Dlouhé stráně (13.2 km at 5.4%), the escapees were already in sight.

Visma | Lease a Bike immediately set the tone, ramping up the pace on the final climb. After strong work from his teammates, Cian Uijtdebroeks launched his attack and went all-in. Santiago Umba (XDS Astana Development Team) was the first to crack, followed by Nahom Zeray and Alessandro Fancellu from the Japanese UKYO team. Only fellow Belgian Junior Lecerf (Soudal–Quick Step) was able to follow Uijtdebroeks comfortably, with the Visma rider continuing to set the tempo at the front.

Inside the final kilometer, Zeray finally dropped, with Uijtdebroeks still leading into the last turn. But Lecerf proved to be the strongest, opening the sprint first and powering clear. Uijtdebroeks couldn’t respond and had to settle for third, as Fancellu came through to take second.