On the second stage of the Vuelta a Espana's three-day detour to Portugal, the sprinters got their chance. At 194 kilometres, the stage was already the second longest section of this year's tour. In the end, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Decuuninck) celebrated victory in Ourém.
In the finale, Visma | Lease a Bike in particular was active to enable Wout van Aert to win the day and take the leader's jersey. In the end, however, the Belgian only managed second place behind Groves. However, the six-second time bonus was enough to oust Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) from first place in the overall standings. Before the stage, the two riders were separated by just two seconds. Third place in the sprint went to Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech).
However, the stage took place at a leisurely pace. With an average speed of 45 km/h, an arrival at 16:25 had been forecast, and with an average speed of 41 km/h, a finish at 16:51. In the end, however, the field only reached the finish line in Ourem at around 18:25.
Vuelta a Espana 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 2
- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Decueninck), 5:12.55 hours
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), +s.t.
- Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), +s.t.
- Miquel Pau (Equipo Kern Pharma), +s.t.
- Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny), +s.t.
- Pavel Bitter (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), +s.t.
- Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel - Euskadi), +s.t.
- Alexandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +s.t.
- Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grandiers), +s.t.
- Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates), +s.t.
The overall standings of the Vuelta a Espana 2024
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), 5:25.27 hours
- Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), +0:03
- Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), +0:05
- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), +0:09
- Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike), +0:11
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +0:20
- Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), +0:21
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), +0:22
- Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), +0:23
- Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +0:24
How the 2nd stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 went
The stage started in the coastal town of Cascais, west of Lisbon. After the individual time trial at the start of the previous day, this stage was also about the first mountain jersey of the tour - with the Alto do Lagoa Azul (4th category), the first of two mountain classifications in the day's profile awaited after just 8.8 kilometres.
At the start of the stage, the duo Ibon Ruiz (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Luis Angel Mate (Euskaltel - Euskadi) broke away from the peloton - and were let go. The mountain classification on the Alto do Lagoa Azul was ultimately won by the 40-year-old Mate, who is contesting his last Tour of Spain.
Average of 34 km/h in the second hour of the race
The lead of the two escapees subsequently increased to around five minutes. However, this was mainly due to the fact that the peloton took a rather leisurely approach to the stage. The first hour of the race was completed at 35 kilometres per hour, the second at just 34 kilometres per hour. Halfway through the race, the gap between the breakaway and the peloton hovered around two to three minutes. In the peloton, Visma | Lease a Bike organised most of the chasing work, but suffered a setback when Dylan Van Baarle had to end the stage after a crash.
The pace remained rather slow for two thirds of this stage. Nevertheless, the lead of the two escapees gradually decreased. Mate still won the intermediate sprint after 140 kilometres in Alcobaca, but two kilometres later the escape of the two breakaway riders was over. Incidentally, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) secured the last two seconds of time bonus in third place at the intermediate sprint, while Wout van Aert came away empty-handed in fourth place.
Mathias Vacek crashes in the final phase
An attack by Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal - Quick Step) on a counter-climb 30 kilometres from the finish then initiated the final phase of the race, with Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) jumping right on his wheel. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) also went on the offensive, but shortly afterwards Visma | Lease a Bike calmed the situation down again.
However, the race remained hectic. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) crashed 23 kilometres before the finish, as he was apparently knocked off his bike by a spectator on the final climb of the day to the Alto da Batalha (4th category). The Czech was in second place overall after the individual time trial the day before, but later managed to catch up again. There were no attacks from the peloton on the climb. Küng secured the mountain classification.
The peloton then stayed together for the remaining 15 kilometres with a few small climbs. It came to the expected sprint finish. Shortly before the finish, however, several riders crashed in a right-hand bend, including Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers).
