TEAM Sky's Danny van Poppel won stage two of the Tour de Yorkshire in a photo finish from overall leader Dylan Groenewegen in Doncaster.

The 22-year-old Dutchman scored his first win in Sky colours as he edged out stage one winner Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) on the line when the 136.5km stage from Otley came down to the final few metres.

Only a handful of people got to see it on a day when television coverage of the event was lost for pretty much the entire day - including the entirety of the women's race earlier in the day - due to a relay plane being grounded twice with different technical difficulties.

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The riders were unaware of that as they raced into Doncaster, however. Four remaining riders from the early break - Josh Edmondson (NFTO), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Stijn Steels (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Michael Morkov (Katusha) - were swallowed up with 10km left, and the lead-out trains began to battle for position.

It was still wide open as they tore down the final straight, with Van Poppel taking it by inches from Groenewegen and Giant-Alpecin's Nikias Ardnt.

"The team did a great job, that's the first thing to say," Van Poppel said."We were really motivated. The last two kilometres it was raining and really hectic. The team did the best they could to really take care of me and then in the last few hundred metres Dylan came really close, but I just knew that I'd won. It was a hectic few minutes."

Groenewegen could take consolation from the fact that he retains the leader's overall jersey for at least one more day - though he expects it to be no more than that - as he remains six seconds clear of Van Poppel, with Arndt eight back overall.

"It was very close," Van Poppel said. "We worked hard, did a good lead-out but I'm going too late and I got second.

"For tomorrow, the stage is too hard for me, but we'll work for Steven (Kruijswijk) and Primoz (Roglic). Maybe we'll keep the leader's jersey not for me but for Steven or Primoz."

Sunday's stage three from Middlesbrough to Whitby is expected to radically change the shape of the general classification with six categorised climbs facing the riders.

The route contains a number of the climbs which featured in stage one of last year's race, won by Sky's Lars Petter Nordhaug who went on to take the overall victory.

The Norwegian, back to defend his title, said he was feeling good going into the final day but was not certain he would be Sky's chosen man.

"I'm good, now we've won a stage I'm really happy and I'm feeling okay," he said.

"It's been great with so many spectators here and I expect a big day tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it.

"We will have to see along the road, I think me and Nico (Roche) will be the team leaders and then we'll see how strong we are. It looks really hard."

LIZZIE Armitstead began the day with goose pimples and ended it happy even though she was denied victory in the women's Tour de Yorkshire.

World champion Armitstead showed off her rainbow jersey as the race started in her home town of Otley before launching a late bid for glory, only to fall short as Dutch rider Kirsten Wild took the honours from a bunch sprint in Doncaster.

Wild beat Wiggle High5's Lucy Garner to the line after the peloton had caught Armitstead and her two fellow escapees inside the final three kilometres of the 136.5km race.

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"The start was brilliant," said Armitstead. "I had a couple of bike problems to begin with which was difficult but it was a goose pimple moment for me at the beginning to be supported by my community.

"It's not something I ever thought would happen to me - to start a race in my home town and as world champion - both are a surprise and a bonus."

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Lizzie Armitstead after today's women's race

Armitstead, who is focused on the road race at the Olympics in Rio, had insisted beforehand she was not a contender for victory here and was happy to have put on the show that she did.

"It was worth just giving it a go," she said. "I wouldn't have betted on me in a sprint so I thought I'd at least make it interesting."

Armitstead made her move on the descent after Conisbrough Castle, around 100km into the stage, and was followed by Leah Kirchmann (Liv Plantur), with the pair soon catching early escapee Doris Schweizer of Cylance Pro Cycling.

"I kind of did it by accident," the 27-year-old said of the attack. "I knew I needed to keep it going down the descent because there was a little kicker there, so I thought 'I need to stick it in here, see what happens,' and when I looked behind there were two of us."

Along with Schweizer she built a lead of around one minute as the race briefly headed into Nottinghamshire - paying homage to Britain's first road cycling world champion Tommy Simpson as it passed through his adopted home town of Harworth - but as they turned back north towards Doncaster, the peloton closed in.

After it all came back together in the final stages, Wild jumped out from the pack to claim glory and a bumper cheque of around £15,000 from a prize fund totalling £50,000 - a record for a women's cycling event.

"Thank you to the team for bringing back the break just in time," said Wild, who will share the prize money with her team-mates. "When it came down to the sprint it was good for me, and I am happy to have won.

"It was a great opportunity for women's cycling and it has been really good to race here, in front of enthusiastic crowds."

That bumper prize fund was intended to herald a 'revolution' in women's cycling but one other key element - live coverage from start to finish - fell flat as a relay plane was grounded with a technical fault and no pictures were broadcast - to the immense dismay of organisers.

While that frustrated potential viewers at home, huge crowds once again lined the route as the sun came out following Friday's bad weather.

When asked about the television coverage, Armitstead said: "I had no idea. It's one of those things but at least all the people on the streets saw us, and hopefully we've inspired some of the girls and boys out on the route."