photo credit La Vuelta/Twitter
Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) claimed the leader’s red jersey after winning stage two of this year’s Vuelta a Espana at Caminito del Rey today.
Chaves surged past an exhausted Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) on the home straight after a punchy finish to the opening road stage of the race – an undulating 159km ride from Alhaurin de la Torre featuring two third category climbs including the final 4.5km ascent with ramps in excess of 20 percent.
In the meantime, Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) took third place at nine seconds back, while compatriot Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) came home for fourth place – a further 14 seconds behind.
Race Highlights
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) lay down an early marker with an attack on the final climb, which served to distance his rivals for the general classification.
From there, Quintana rode with the leaders before being dropped near the summit after compatriot Chaves joined following a counter attack from the main group.
Quintana eventually crossed the line just behind Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) for sixth place, 26 seconds down.
Meanwhile, Chris Froome took seventh place a further four seconds in arrears ahead of Spanish duo Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Daniel Moreno (Katusha).
Italy’s Fabio Aru (Astana) completed the top ten at 37 seconds after a particularly gruelling conclusion to the second stage of the race – which more than made up for the lack of drama on Saturday’s neutralized team time trial.
With bonus seconds available for the top three riders of each stage, Chaves now holds a five-second lead over Dumoulin in the overall standings with Roche third at 15 seconds.
Stage 2 Results COL 1 CHAVES RUBIO, Jhoan Esteban (ORICA GreenEDGE) 3:57:25 NED 2 DUMOULIN, Tom (TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN) + 1 IRL 3 ROCHE, Nicolas (SKY) + 9 IRL 4 MARTIN, Daniel (TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN) + 14 ESP 5 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, Joaquin (KATUSHA) + 26 COL 6 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR) GBR 7 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) + 30 ESP 8 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) + 31 ESP 9 MORENO FERNANDEZ, Daniel (KATUSHA) ITA 10 ARU, Fabio (ASTANA) + 37 ESP 11 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) + 41 ESP 12 LANDA MEANA, Mikel (ASTANA) FRA 13 SICARD, Romain (EUROPCAR) RSA 14 JIM, Songezo (MTN – QHUBEKA) + 42 USA 15 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (BMC RACING) + 45 ITA 16 BRAMBILLA, Gianluca (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 54 FRA 17 ROSSETTO, Stéphane (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) ITA 18 POZZOVIVO, Domenico (AG2R LA MONDIALE) POR 19 CARDOSO, Andre Fernando S. Martins (TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN) BEL 20 VANENDERT, Jelle (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 1:04 POL 21 MAJKA, Rafal (TINKOFF – SAXO) ESP 22 SANCHEZ GIL, Luis Leon (ASTANA) FRA 23 BOUET, Maxime (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 1:12 BEL 24 MONFORT, Maxime (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 1:13 BEL 25 DE CLERCQ, Bart (LOTTO SOUDAL) NZL 26 BENNETT, George (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) ESP 27 NAVARRO GARCIA, Daniel (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) ESP 28 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, Haimar (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 1:21 COL 29 ATAPUMA HURTADO, Darwin (BMC RACING) POR 30 MOREIRA PAULINHO, Sergio Miguel (TINKOFF – SAXO) + 1:46 FRA 31 ELISSONDE, Kenny (FDJ) + 1:51 FRA 32 LE GAC, Olivier (FDJ) + 1:57 POR 33 VILELA, Ricardo (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) + 1:58 ESP 34 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ, Samuel (BMC RACING)
General Classification after Stage 2 COL 1 CHAVES RUBIO, Jhoan Esteban (ORICA GreenEDGE) 3:57:15 NED 2 DUMOULIN, Tom (TEAM GIANT – ALPECIN) + 5 IRL 3 ROCHE, Nicolas (SKY) + 15 IRL 4 MARTIN, Daniel (TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN) + 24 ESP 5 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER, Joaquin (KATUSHA) + 36 COL 6 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR) GBR 7 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) + 40 ESP 8 VALVERDE BELMONTE, Alejandro (MOVISTAR) + 41 ESP 9 MORENO FERNANDEZ, Daniel (KATUSHA) ITA 10 ARU, Fabio (ASTANA) + 47
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