The GC favourites came out to play on stage 2 of the Vuelta a España.
Cor Vos
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.
More to come …
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