San Luis Obispo, CA – 27th May 2010 – First-year pro and HTC-Columbia rider Leigh Howard moved into the overall lead in the Bayern Rundfahrt stage race in Germany on Thursday. The 20-year-old Australian finished second in a bunch sprint behind Germany’s Robert Wagner in stage two of the race, a 200-kilometer trek from Viechtach to Bayreuth.

Thanks to his placings on stages one and two, Howard now leads overall with a two second advantage over Ruben Perez of Spain and four seconds over German Nils Plotner. Howard is also in command of the Best Young Rider’s competition. “I wasn’t expecting to take the yellow jersey, but this is a good bonus and it’s great to be up on the podium,” the young HTC-Columbia rider said later. “The whole team performed brilliantly. They all came to the front with about 15 kilometres to go, and held a medium pace at first before turning it up towards the end. It was quite a straight run-in and that suited me. It’s just a shame I didn’t quite get the win. Still, tomorrow’s another possibility. It’s hilly but it still could end up being another bunch sprint, and Sunday is the flattest stage of them all.”

Two of HTC-Columbia’s riders were involved in a big crash near the finish, but neither suffered major injuries. “Peter Velits hurt his hand and Maxime Monfort injured his knee, but they should be ok to start tomorrow,” said sports director Jan Schaffrath.

Howard’s success in the Bayern Rundfahrt Thursday coincides with teammate Andre Greipel’s victory in stage 18 of the Giro d’Italia.