Jonas Vingegaard finished strongly to win the mountainous second stage of the Vuelta a España on Sunday, emphasising his status as the general classification favourite in the absence of Tadej Pogacar by outsprinting Giulio Ciccone on the slopes of Limone Piemonte in northern Italy.
Vingegaard had to get off the tarmac to get his hands on the red jersey after being involved in a big crash that included a number of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates, but he was able to rejoin the peloton with just a bloodied left elbow. The Danish rider went on to triumph in a mass sprint featuring a number of GC rivals on the climb to the town near the Italian border with France.
“It’s been a while since my last victory, I’m super happy with how I felt and how the team did today. Also super happy to have the red jersey,” Vingegaard said.
David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) finished third but his teammate Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet, who won the Vuelta’s mountains classification in 2020, was forced to withdraw from the race following a crash.
In the early running, Vingegaard was happy to remain in the peloton as Gal Glivar, Jakub Otruba, Liam Slock and Sinuhe Fernandez formed a breakaway pack, taking a two-minute lead from the bunch on mostly flat terrain.
The incident that saw Martin-Guyonnet became the first rider to quit the race came as rainfall made the roads treacherous on the 159.6-kilometer (100-mile) route from Alba. The Frenchman’s crash on a descent came just before Vingegaard was one of a number to fall in a separate incident at a roundabout.
“I went down pretty hard, but it seems like I didn’t hurt myself too bad. I have a bit of bruises, but I think because it was so slippery, I was sliding more so I didn’t really get any bad road rash or anything,” Vingegaard said.
Once the road turned dry going into the final 10km ascent, the peloton began to reduce the gap to the leading group and caught them halfway up the climb.
The early leaders were swallowed up by the peloton in the final kilometres, with Visma’s Wilco Kelderman driving the bunch as Vingegaard sat just behind. Julien Bernard took over for Lidl-Trek teammates Ciccone and Andrea Bagioli, before Spanish rider Marc Soler made a break 600 meters out. Yet, it was Vingegaard who pipped Ciccone to the line, followed by David Gaudu and Egan Bernal of Ineos Grenadiers.
Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who finished 155th on the stage, retained the green jersey for the points classification.
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The race’s 80th edition features eight summit finishes, including the highly anticipated and potentially decisive climb of L’Angliru on stage 13.
The opening stages of this year’s Vuelta are being held in northern Italy before stage four dips across into France. The racing then shifts to its Spanish homeland, avoiding any racing in the south, before the traditional finish in Madrid.
The race continues on Monday with a 139km ride from San Maurizio Canavese to Ceres.
