{"id":428693,"date":"2026-01-21T23:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428693\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:08:08","slug":"luke-mudgway-wins-stage-2-to-retain-overall-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428693\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Mudgway wins Stage 2 to retain overall lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Mudgway of Li Ning Star, China, won Stage 2 of the Pune Grand Tour 2026<\/a> on Wednesday to retain the overall lead after a demanding 105.3km Maratha Heritage Circuit.<\/p>\n

Mudgway clocked 2 hours 31 minutes 49 seconds to complete a stage marked by sustained climbing and a technical finale, securing his second consecutive victory and keeping the Yellow Jersey as the five-day cycling race moved deeper into Maharashtra.<\/p>\n

Alan Carter Bettles of Roojai Insurance Winspeed (Thailand) finished second while Yorben Lauryssen of Tarteletto-Isorex (Belgium) placed third to claim his second straight podium finish. The top six riders were all credited with the same finishing time, with positions decided by a photo finish.<\/p>\n

Clement Alleno and Jambaljamts Sainbayar of Burgos Burpellet BH (Spain) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while Stefan Benetton of Eurocyclingtrips-CCN (Guam) took sixth.<\/p>\n

Under UCI 2.2 regulations, Mudgway earned a 10-second time bonus, with Bettles receiving six seconds and Lauryssen four, further strengthening Mudgway\u2019s position in the general classification.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hot day, lots of mountains, but I survived to the finish and again got to sprint from a small group,\u201d Mudgway said. \u201cThat suits me well, and I\u2019m glad I could execute it again today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mudgway credited his teammates for controlling the race despite being one rider short. \u201cOur sprinters worked so the climbers could rest, and they brought it back close enough before the second-to-last climb,\u201d the Kiwi cyclist explained.<\/p>\n

The decisive moves came on the final climb, a steep second-category ascent, followed by a fast and technical descent that stretched the\u00a0peloton before the run-in to the finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams started attacking us, but I managed to keep it under control. One of my teammates stayed with me after the first climb and rode me to the finish, and then I got to sprint again. I\u2019m happy I could finish it off for the team,\u201d Mudgway said.<\/p>\n

In the mountains classification, Stefan Benetton of Eurocyclingtrips-CCN (Guam), claimed maximum points to take the Polka Dot Jersey. Jambaljamts Sainbayar of Burgos Burpellet BH (Spain) retained the Orange Jersey as best Asian rider while Dutch rider Tijssen Viego of Wielerploeg Groot Amsterdam claimed the White Jersey for best young rider. Sarda Manav of the Indian Development Team took the Blue Jersey as India\u2019s leading rider.<\/p>\n

Stage 3, the Western Ghats Gateway, will be held on Thursday. The 134km route from Purandar to Baramati features 1,024 metres of elevation gain and is expected to pose a different tactical challenge with rolling terrain, exposed roads and crosswinds.<\/p>\n

The Pune Grand Tour 2026 is India\u2019s first UCI-classified 2.2 multi-stage men\u2019s cycling road race. The 437km event features 171 riders from 29 teams representing 35 countries and concludes on Friday.<\/p>\n

Owing to its UCI classification, the Pune Grand Tour offers riders the opportunity to earn valuable ranking points that count toward qualification for the LA 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Mudgway of Li Ning Star, China, won Stage 2 of the Pune Grand Tour 2026 on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-428693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}