Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) recovered from a late crash to win the second stage of the Vuelta a España at the Limone Piemonte summit finish. The Dane overhauled Italian favourite Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) in the final 20 metres to take the win by the width of a deep-section rim and with it the race leader’s red jersey.
Racing in heavy rain towards the finish, Vingegaard slid off with a dozen or so riders including Q36.5’s Tom Pidcock as the peloton exited a roundabout with 27km remaining. He was quickly back in the saddle, though, and was well guarded by his Visma teammates on the big ring climb to the finish. Victor Campenaerts, Wilco Kelderman and Ben Tulett all played key roles on the final 10km ascent, before Sepp Kuss set up Vingegaard in the closing 500 metres.
“You’re not going to let the stage win pass, so when I saw the opportunity then, of course, I’m going to take it,” said Vingegaard when asked about the win and his early capture of the red leader’s jersey.
“It’s been a while since my last victory, obviously, but I’m super happy with how I felt and how the team did today. I’m also super happy with having the red jersey as well.”
Vingegaard admitted that he thought victory would elude him when Ciccone made his attack. “I just went on his wheel. And, to be honest, before the last corner, I didn’t think that it would be possible to pass him. But coming out of the corner it was a bit longer to the finish than I thought. So, luckily, I could just pass him,” he said.
Asked about his crash, Vingegaard said he thought that he’d escaped it without any significant injury, unlike Visma teammate Axel Zingle, who was forced to abandon the race after reportedly dislocating a shoulder. “I went down pretty hard, but it seems like I didn’t hurt myself too bad. I have some bruises, but I think because it was so slippery I slid more, so I didn’t really get any bad road rash or anything,” he said.
Tom Pidcock, whose bike hit a signpost in that same crash, also appeared to come out of the incident relatively unscathed. The Briton, who finished 10th at Limone Piemonte, said he had no excuses about missing out on the stage win. “My bike might be a bit damaged, but I’ve got no excuses,” he said. “I wanted to change it as my back wheel was wobbling, but I think it seems OK.
“I think I can be happy with how I rode, to be honest. I always take a few days to get into a race. But, anyway, we committed. I didn’t have the legs, but we’ll try again another time.”
With 46km remaining, as rain began to fall heavily, an attack from the break by Caja Rural’s Otruba led to Fernández being dropped from the front group. Back in the peloton, the wet conditions provoked a number of crashes. Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ) was the first victim, the Frenchman becoming the first rider to abandon the race.
A few kilometres later, a bigger crash, coming out of a roundabout with 27km remaining, saw a dozen riders go down near the front of the peloton after a Q36.5 rider slid off. Most of the Q36.5 and Visma-Lease a Bike teams either went down or were held up in the incident, including their leaders Pidcock and Vingegaard. Although they escaped any significant injury, Zingle, unfortunately, wasn’t as lucky.
The slowdown in the peloton’s pace caused by these crashes allowed the three breakaways to push their diminishing lead out again, to almost two minutes with 20km remaining. That was never likely to be enough, however, to hold off the peloton on the 10km final climb. Slock made a final solo effort with 8km left, but all three escapees were caught soon after as the GC teams set a rapid pace on the steady drag towards Limone Piemonte.
VUELTA A ESPAÑA
STAGE 2, ALBA > LIMONE PIEMONTE (159.5KM)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 3:47:14
2. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek
3. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
4. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, all same time
5. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +2s
6. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
7. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
8. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG
9. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike
10. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5, all same time
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