PAUL MAGNIER will be wearing the leader’s jersey when the second stage of the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain leaves Darlington tomorrow morning.

With stage two of the race encompassing a 152km route from Darlington to Redcar, via the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire, Magnier will be hoping to build on his strong display on day one in Scotland.

The 20-year-old triumphed on an undulating 181.9km course that started and finished in Kelso, claiming his sixth stage win of the year in a sprint finish.

Magnier, who rides for the Soudal Quick-Step team, burst to victory ahead of Ethan Vernon (Israel - Premier Tech), with youngster Bob Donaldson (TRINITY Racing) finishing third.

With all the intermediate sprint wins under his belt, Julius Johansen is top of the points classification, with Peebles resident Callum Thornley having secured the King of the Mountains jersey thanks to his climbing prowess.

“I’m really happy to take the victory for the team today,” said Magnier. “It was incredible - we did an amazing team performance today.

“We tried Remco (Evenepoel) and Julian (Alaphilippe) on the climb but it was really hard so in the end, they tried for me in the bunch race. They give you wings when such big riders are working for you.”

An exciting start saw a flurry of attacks from the off, with riders from TRINITY Racing and the Great Britain Cycling Team quick to assert dominance at the front of the race.

Thornley and Johansen made the first significant move of the day, before being shortly joined by Callum Ormiston (Global 6 United) inside the first 20km. The trio racked up a lead of three and a half minutes, before facing the first categorised climb of the day with Scott’s View at 64.4km in.

The second-category climb saw Thornley take maximum points once again in a battle against Ormiston. The gap to the peloton reduced to 1:50 as Gianni Moscon (Soudal Quick-Step) continued to work alongside team-mate and double Olympic champion Evenepoel.

Inside the final 100km, Thornley once again led the break up the third categorised climb, Dunion Hill, securing his third and final King of the Mountain win of the day.

With just 39km remaining, INEOS Grenadiers began to bring it back, hitting the front ferociously and forcing five riders to go clear. Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) counter-attacked, before Evenepoel went hard from the peloton as it all began to heat up.

Johansen clung on to take another intermediate sprint, before being swallowed up by a storming peloton, led by INEOS Grenadiers, Uno-X Mobility and Bahrain Victorious.

A flurry of attacks followed, with Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Evenepoel and Turner all having a go, but nothing was able to stick as the road flattened out with 20km remaining.

INEOS Grenadiers continued to storm at the front with Tobias Foss doing most of the leg work, before Baptiste Veistroffer (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale DT) attacked inside the final 7km.

Foss continued to work for INEOS Grenadiers as Soudal Quick-Step came through with 2.8km to go, swallowing up the lone French rider.

Turner and Evenepoel took to the front to lead out the two teams, with British champion Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) on his team-mates’ wheel, but a sharp final bend saw Hayter pushed wide and out of contention as Magnier claimed victory.