KOKSIJDE, Belgium: Italy’s Elia Viviani claimed the second stage of Three Days of De Panne on Wednesday, edging out Germany’s Marcel Kittel and overall leader Alexander Kristoff in a sprint finish after a 211km run from Zottegem.

Katusha rider Kristoff, winner of Tuesday’s opening stage and the defending champion, holds a five-second lead going into Thursday’s concluding split stages — a 111km trip around De Panne is followed by a 14.2km time-trial.

Cycling tests positive

Russia’s troubles with the banned substance meldonium resurfaced Wednesday when officials confirmed that two track cyclists and an Olympic hopeful water polo player had failed doping tests.

Anastasia Chulkova, who won the points race at the 2012 world track championship, and former European bronze medalist Pavel Yakushevsky tested positive for the drug that was banned from Jan. 1.

The Russian cycling federation said in an e-mailed statement that both Chulkova and Yakushevsky stopped taking meldonium after the World Anti-Doping Agency said in September that the substance would be banned.

The federation said evidence points to “leftover traces,” but didn’t specify when the samples were taken.

“According to the data which we have, the amount of the substance in the doping sample is low,” the federation said.

Another Russian cyclist, road racer Eduard Vorganov, was suspended last month after testing positive for meldonium, the same drug that Maria Sharapova tested positive for at the Australian Open.