Chris Boardman believes his performance in the Prutour of Britain over the next few days will give him a major indication as to whether he is able to turn his time-trial form into an ability to compete for road race honours.

The 29-year-old British star, one of the world's outstanding individual time-trial riders, has yet to feature in the shake-up in top distance races such as the Tour de France.

But after winning both the prologue time trial and Sunday's first stage of the Prutour he was in confident mood ahead of today's section from Gateshead to York via the North York Moors.

"Yesterday was my first success in a road race for five years," said Boardman, who was forced to pull out of last year's Tour de France after crashing in the Pyrenees.

"Physically I felt better than I have all season. I was able to ride really hard at the front and if I can hold it over the next few days I'll know I've turned the corner."

Boardman was yesterday a driving force in a 19-man breakaway that escaped from the main field with 48 miles to go, with the group split by attacks from the Festina team on the run-in to the finish.

But the British rider marked every attack and then launched his own bid for victory two miles from the end. "I chose my spot and gambled everything on an all-out attack," he said. "It worked and suddenly I was clear. Then it was a battle for survival."

A big crowd in Newcastle saw Boardman round the last corner and sprint across the line with just one second to spare from Germany's Andre Korff and Stuart O'Grady of Australia.

Boardman had started the stage from Edinburgh with a lead of two seconds in the overall contest, which he extended to nine over nearest challenger George Hincapie of America with O'Grady third at 10 seconds.

Chris Newton of the Brite team - close to his home base of Middlesbrough - was the second best Briton overall, lying eighth in the 107-strong field after taking seventh place on the stage.

But Stephen Russell of the Scotland national team was disqualified from the race, along with two Dutch riders, for taking an illegal tow from a team car.

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