Germany's Andre Greipel (Team Columbia) won the second stage of the Eneco Tour in The Netherlands on Friday.

Greipel beat Argentina's Juan Jose Haedo (CSC-Saxo Bank) and compatriot Robert Forster(Gerolsteiner) in a rain-soaked sprint finish in Nieuwegein, in the north of The Netherlands. Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) was fourth and stage one winner Tom Boonen was fifth.

Spain's Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) finished in the same time as Greipel and so retained the overall race lead but Team Columbia's Edvald Boasson Hagen gained three seconds by winning an early intermediate sprint and is now second overall.

Hagen is equal on time with Gutierrez in the official results but Gutierrez leads the race by the 16 hundredths of a second advantage he gained in the opening prologue time trial.

Hagen was sixth in the stage sprint.

"Edvald is just 16 hundredths of a second behind Gutierrez now," team director Tristan Hoffman said. "That's close and so perhaps we can get the lead in the next few days. However we don't want to wear out the team and then lose the race by several minutes. We're going to ride smart"

The eight-day Eneco Tour continues on Saturday with stage three from Nieuwegein to Terneuzen in the west of The Netherlands over a distance of 185.9km.

"We had a tailwind for most of stage two but it will be a headwind on stage three. However all the guys are riding well and working together, so there's no reason why we can't win again," Hoffman said.