photo credits @ Volta
One hundred and sixty-three riders took the start of the second stage of the Volta Catalunya today, which went through the interior of the Girona area in one of the most favorable stages for the fastest riders, with the ascent of two mountain passes in the central part of the route: the Coll Puig del Pení (3rd category) and the Alt de Sant Pere. From the first attack of the day, it was Calum Johnston (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Diego Uriarte (Team Kern Pharma) and Danny van der Tuuk (Euskaltel-Euskadi) who were able to form the first breakaway.
However, the peloton had clawed most of the escapees’ advantage at the foot of the second pass of the day, the monumental Alt de Sant Pere de Rodes (1st category), accelerated by the threat of the wind that had been blowing throughout the stage. In the final part of the pass, the promising Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH) took advantage of the hardness of its ramps to jump from the peloton, overtake the escapees, and crown alone. All in all, Van der Tuuk secured one more day the leadership in the mountain classification of the Volta a Catalunya, in which he was the protagonist of the breakaway in the first two stages.
With 70 kilometers to go, after the descent, the strong pace of the peloton neutralized the breakaway and the approach to Figueres, where there were two passes over the finish line, making for a tense end to the stage. At the third and final intermediate sprint of the day in Garriguella, 67 kilometers from the finish, the favorites fought for the bonus seconds with Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) as the best finisher, and despite some attacks from names such as Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) nothing could prevent a mass finish in the capital.
From there, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, controlled the approach to the finish in Figueres, but the young Matthew Brennan was overtaken by a compatriot: the fast Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech), who in the 2022 edition of the Catalan race had won his first professional victory in Vilanova i la Geltrú. Three years later, he was able to raise his arms again and celebrate the stage victory in a tight finish ahead of Brennan himself, who was second, and the triple stage winner in the Volta, the Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was third and came close to victory for the second consecutive day.
