Henderson wins shortened Murcia stage

New Zealand's Greg Henderson, riding for Team Columbia, won the second stage of the Tour of Murcia which was shortened because of the strong winds lashing the region.

His win meant he took the overall lead from Australia's Graeme Brown.

Henderson covered the 100 kilometres between Las Torres de Cotillas and Caravaca in 2hr 07min 27 sec, outsprinting Euskaltel-Euskadi's Spain's Ruben Perez of Euskaltel-Euskadi and fellow New Zealander Julian Dean of Garmin-Slipstream.

The stage was scheduled to ascend the Alto de San Juan, a category one climb, but organisers were forced to shorten the stage and skip the climb due to wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres (55 miles) an hour.

The third stage will be a 16-kilometre time trial through the streets of San Pedro del Pintar.

1. Greg Henderson (NZL/Team Columbia) 2hr 07min 27sec, 2. RubenPerez Euskaltel (ESP), 3. Julian Dean (NZL), 4. David Calatayud (ESP),5. Tom Leezer (NED) all same time

General classification:

1. Greg Henderson (NZL/Team Columbia) 7hr 14min 04sec, 2. RubenPerez Euskaltel (ESP), 3. Graeme Brown (AUS), 4. Tom Leezer (NED), 5.Matthew Goss (AUS) all same time