Approaching the dying stages of the 144.5 kilometres stage, the group remained bunched before a sprint in the closing moments saw Pieters, the Boels-Dolmans rider, cross the line first in three hours, 49min and 42sec.

Great Britain's Hannah Barnes of Canyon//SRAM took second place in the same time.

Second place sees the national road race champion take the Best British Rider jersey away from her sister Alice.

Completing the top three was Sunweb's Ellen van Djik, with the Dutch rider also finishing in the same time as the top two.

Anna van der Breggen of The Netherlands, who currently leads the International Cycling Union (UCI) Women's WorldTour standings and won road race gold at Rio 2016, finished in 11th place.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Poland, who won yesterday's opening stage, managed to retain her general classification lead following a fifth place finish today.

She has an overall time of 7:41:11 while The Netherlands' Marianne Vos, the winner of the inaugural Women's Tour in 2014, shares second with Hannah Barnes, 1:46 behind.

Tomorrow's 151km third stage starts in Atherstone and finishes in Royal Leamington Spa.

Racing will conclude on Sunday (June 11) with a 62km stage that starts and finishes on Regent Street in London.

The Women’s Tour is a part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, which is made up of 20 events around the world in 10 different countries.