Dan Martin lying third in Tour of Britain

Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin were both prominent at the finish of Monday's second stage of the Tour of Britain, with Roche attacking in the finale and Martin taking a fine third into Kendal.

The stage was won by Martin's teammate Julien Vermote (Etixx-QuickStep), who clipped away from the day's break with Steve Cummings (Team Dimension Data) and held off the chase behind. Martin blocked to help Vermote's chances and then beat the other riders to the line, 58 seconds later.

Roche attacked prior to the drag up to the line but was caught and passed, finishing 11th. He has shown a strong recovery from a recent bout of pneumonia. Compatriots Conor Dunne (An Post Chainreaction) and Ryan Mullen (Cannondale-Drapac) had also been in the day's early move, but were caught.

Martin is a fine third overall heading into stage three. Roche is 10th and is second in the mountains classification, while Martin is fifth in the points ranking.