The Danish Andreas Kron won the second stage of the Vuelta a España 2023 alone this Sunday between Mataró and Barcelona, in which the general times were taken far from the finish line and the rain was once again an important factor, causing falls and upsets among some favourites.

Kron attacked on the climb to the top of Montjuic, with two kilometers to go, beating Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin), who was second, and Italian Andrea Vendrame (Ag2R).

The race management decided to freeze the times of the race nine kilometers from the sentencing line, urged by the runners fearing another day of heavy rain like the one that conditioned the first stage of the Spanish round the day before.

Once past the timing point, the main favorites for the general classification such as Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard or Primoz Roglic, one of those affected by the falls of the day, tried not to take risks waiting for the next stages.

The riders waited for a 182-kilometre stage through the interior of the province of Barcelona, going through some of the areas most traveled by Catalan cyclists, which meant that, despite the unpleasant day, there were many who came close to some of the difficulties of the day, mainly the Coll d’Estenalles, to see their idols go by.

With this scenario it seemed that the leaders would try to spend the day in the best possible way, and the hard finish was not conducive to a sprint arrival either, so the breakaway was postulated as something very sweet. Finally, five cyclists would be part of the first break of this 2023 Tour: Andrea Piccolo, Matteo Sobrero, Javier Romo, Jetse Bol and Joel Nicolau.

All in all, a very bumpy day with numerous falls and punctures despite the precautions. Even the Slovenian Primoz Roglic crashed a little over 30 km from the conclusion, which caused a small threat to boycott the stage by the Jumbo-Visma riders who sought to slow down the pace although this time, DSM-Firmenich did not he was intimidated and returned to take the lead to defend the leadership achieved yesterday.

Also the falls and the state of the asphalt are filtering the escape in which, 15 kilometers from the finish line, only Andrea Piccolo and Javier Romo survived in the lead, located 6 and 17 seconds away respectively. Despite taking the times at the entrance to the Montjuic circuit, the organization inexplicably kept the bonus points at the top of Montjuic Castle and at the finish line.

The two escapees reached this point easily, which gave the lead of the race to Andrea Piccolo. From then on, all the favorites disconnected and a group of about 35 cyclists was in the lead.

Classification Stage 2

1.- Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny) 4h22’44”

2.- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +07’’

3.- Andreaa Vendrame (AG2R-Citroën) m.t.

4.- Andrea Bagioli (Soudal-QuickStep) m.t.

5.- Fernando Barceló (Caja Rurral-Seguros RGA) m.t.

6.- Iván García Cortina (Movistar Team) m.t.

7.- Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) m.t.

8.- Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) m.t.

9.- Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) m.t.

10.- Kobe Goossens (Inerrmarché-Circus-Wanty) m.t.

General ranking

1.- Andrea Piccolo (ITA/EFE) 4h 27:23.

2.- Javier Romo (ESP/AST) at 11.

3.- Ivan García (ESP/MOV) at 13.

4.- Romain Bardet (FRA/DSM) m.t.

5.- Max Poole (GBR/DSM) m.t.