The GC favourites came out to play on stage 2 of the Vuelta a España.
Cor Vos, Gruber Images
It was a breathless finale to stage 2 of the Vuelta a España, which brought the first summit finish to the Spanish Grand Tour. It was nowhere near the hardest climb of the race, with any significant gaps unlikely among the GC contenders, but that didn’t stop them from going all-in for victory. After a powerful climb led by Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek, it came down to a photo finish between Giulio Ciccone and Jonas Vingegaard, the latter quick to celebrate as he crossed the line – the result was confirmed moments later.
Only three riders finished on the same time as Vingegaard, David Gaudu and Egan Bernal third and fourth, with João Almeida leading the group home in fifth – probably not helped by Marc Soler’s ill-fated attack 600 metres out – two seconds down on the stage but now 12 seconds behind new leader Vingegaard on GC.
Juan Ayuso’s eighth place on the stage puts the 22-year-old into the white jersey, while Antonio Tiberi, his rival for the best young rider’s classification and the podium, was one of few to lose a chunk of time, finishing 19 seconds after the large GC group.
Rain fell hard at various points during the stage, the worst of it coming in the last hour or so, with a number of crashes bringing down big names including Vingegaard, George Bennett and Guillaume Martin, the latter forced to abandon. Tom Pidcock was also implicated in the big crash with 25 km to go and ultimately finished 10th, a disappointing result after Q36.5 led from the front for so much of the stage.
[race_result id=23 stage_id=86346 count=10 gc=0 year=2025]
[race_result id=23 stage_id=86346 count=10 gc=10 year=2025]
Quote of the dayYou’re not gonna let a stage win pass … It’s been a while since my last victory.”
– Vingegaard said cheerily as he cooled down post-stage.
Just off the stage podium was Egan Bernal whose comeback is continuing its uphill trajectory since his near-career-ending training crash three and a half years ago.
I actually didn’t think of fighting for the win. I started the stage with a different mindset. Yet I found myself at the front, and decided to try my luck … It’s good for my morale to be up there.”
Experiencing a comparatively disappointing finish was Tom Pidcock who finished 10th on a day his team did a lot of work up until the mass crash that the young Brit was caught up in. In fact, he narrowly avoided colliding with a pole.
I honestly don’t feel anything [after the crash]. I don’t know if there’s any damage to my bike, but I have no excuses … Still, I can be satisfied with how I rode. It always takes me a few days to get into such a race. We tried it, I didn’t have the legs, but we’re going to try again.”
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