Earlier, stage one winner, and therefore race leader, Andre Greipel decided the best way to defend his yellow jersey was on the front, joining a 15-strong break.

Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) was another WorldTour rider to help power the move, with Giant-Alpecin, LottoNL-Jumbo and Trek-Segafredo all boasting two riders apiece.

Loic Vliegen (BMC Racing), Vermote, Ryan Mullen (Cannondale-Drapac) and Johann van Zyl (Dimension Data) also got involved, alongside Hector Saez (Caja Rural), Xandro Meurisse (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Conor Dunne (JLT-Condor).

Having missed the move, Movistar sent Jorge Arcas and Giovanni Visconti up the road in pursuit but Visconti punctured to put paid to that tactic.

Instead the Spanish team and ONE Pro Cycling set the pace in the bunch, with the gap slowly coming down from its four-and-a-half-minute peak.

Greipel extended his overall lead by collecting three bonus seconds at the first intermediate sprint – Dunne took two, and Roche one – and the German did so again at the second sprint, again beating Dunne.

As the climbing started, the front group fractured however – Roche cresting Whinlatter Pass first, and Meurisse winning the sprint to the top of Chestnut Hill.

Adrien Costa (Etixx-QuickStep) suffered a nasty-looking crash as the peloton headed towards Keswick with 60km to go, but the pace continued to be high with several of the teams not represented in the break happy to power the bunch.

A chase group was just shy of 30 seconds back, with Daniel Martin (Etixx-QuickStep), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Cummings and Ben Swift (Team Sky) all there.

Cummings and Martin tried to bridge across, before Gallopin, Dumoulin and Swift tried to join their counter-attack, but the Tour de France stage-winning Brit was off on his own as he joined the back of the front group.

After a moment to catch his breath, a Cummings attack was almost inevitable and it duly arrived with 12.3km to go though Dennis was wise to it.

When Vermote attacked, however, Cummings set off again and the two had a small gap heading into the final 10km.

That continued to grow, with it fast becoming clear the Dimension Data had timed his attack to perfection again – but this time he had Vermote to shake off, and the Etixx-QuickStep man clung to the Brit’s tail.

Ultimately, he could not be shaken off and attacked on the final climb to claim victory and the race lead, with Cummings six seconds back in second place overall.

Tour of Britain 2016: stage two – result

1) Julien Vermote (BEL) – Etixx-QuickStep – 5.40.50hrs
2) Steve Cummings (GBR) – Dimension Data +2”
3) Daniel Martin (IRL) – Etixx-QuickStep +58”
4) Xandro Meurisse (BEL) – Wanty Groupe-Gobert – ST
5) Tony Gallopin (FRA) – Lotto-Soudal
6) Ben Swift (GBR) – Team Sky
7) Guillaume Martin (FRA) – Wanty-Groupe Gobert +1.02
8) Tom Dumoulin (NED) – Giant-Alpecin
9) Dylan van Baarle (NED) – Cannondale-Drapac
10) Jacopo Mosca (ITA) – Trek-Segafredo +1.06

General classification

1) Julien Vermote (BEL) – Etixx-QuickStep – 9.33.20hrs
2) Steve Cummings (GBR) – Dimension Data +6”
3) Daniel Martin (IRL) – Etixx-QuickStep +1.04
4) Xandro Meurisse (BEL) – Wanty Groupe-Gobert +1.08
5) Ben Swift (GBR) – Team Sky – ST
6) Tony Gallopin (FRA) – Lotto-Soudal
7) Dylan van Baarle (NED) – Cannondale-Drapac +1.12
8) Guillaume Martin (FRA) – Wanty-Groupe Gobert
9) Tom Dumoulin (NED) – Giant-Alpecin
10) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – Team Sky +1.16