In a sprint finish, Australian rider Kaden Groves (Alpecin – Deceuninck) won the first online stage of the 79th edition of the Vuelta a España, after riding 194.6 kilometers between the Portuguese towns of Cascais and Ourém.
The 25-year-old Oceanic rider was the fastest in the bunch, beating Belgian Wout van Aert (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) in the last meters, who became the new leader due to time bonuses.
Ibon Ruiz (Team Kern Pharma) and Luis Ángel Maté (Euskaltel – Euskadi) were in charge of the initial breakaway attempt. The Spanish riders from the invited teams broke away from the bunch to go on a breakaway of several kilometers that ended with 50 kilometers to go.
Once the peloton got back together, there were new attempts to break away, but the group controlled very well. With 23 kilometers to go, an amateur knocked down Mathias Vacek (Lidl Trek), who was in second place overall. The Czech had to accelerate to regain the 42 seconds he had lost in the general classification.
Finally, the peloton came together in the last meters to define the victory with a sprint battle. In a head to head battle, the launch trains were key and allowed Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to take the win of the day after a time of 5:12:55.
In second place came Wout Van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) with no time difference at the finish. The third position was for Corbin Strong (Israel – Premier Tech) who took the last step of the podium without losing seconds at the finish.
Van Aert achieved an important fraction and took the lead in the general classification. On the Colombian side, the best positioned in the general classification was Brandon Rivera in ninth place and without differences. Harold Tejada was 21st and Daniel Martínez 61st, both also without differences in the general classification.
As for the Colombians, the best was Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) in ninth place. Five Colombians were in the group with the same time as the winner, with the exception of Santiago Umba (Astana Qazatan) and Rigoberto Urán (EF Education EasyPost), who arrived behind.
This Monday will be disputed the third stage of the Spanish round still in Portuguese territory, with departure in Lousã and arrival in Castelo Branco, on a route of 191.5 kilometers in undulating terrain.
La Vuelta Ciclista a España (2.UWT)
Results Stage 2 | Cascais – Ourém (194 km)
| 1 | Kaden Groves | Alpecin – Deceuninck | 5:12:55 |
| 2 | Wout van Aert | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | ,, |
| 3 | Corbin Strong | Israel – Premier Tech | ,, |
| 4 | Pau Miquel | Equipo Kern Pharma | ,, |
| 5 | Lennert van Eetvelt | Lotto Dstny | ,, |
| 6 | Pavel Bittner | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | ,, |
| 7 | Jon Aberasturi | Euskaltel – Euskadi | ,, |
| 8 | Aleksandr Vlasov | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe | ,, |
| 9 | Brandon Rivera | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
| 10 | Filippo Baroncini | UAE Team Emirates | ,, |
Ranking General
| 1 | Wout van Aert | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 5:25:27 |
| 2 | Brandon McNulty | UAE Team Emirates | 0:03 |
| 3 | Mathias Vacek | Lidl – Trek | 0:05 |
| 4 | Stefan Kung | Groupama – FDJ | 0:09 |
| 5 | Edoardo Affini | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 0:11 |
| 6 | Primož Roglic | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe | 0:20 |
| 7 | Bruno Armirail | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 0:21 |
| 8 | João Almeida | UAE Team Emirates | 0:22 |
| 9 | Nelson Oliveira | Movistar Team | 0:23 |
| 10 | Florian Lipowitz | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe | 0:24 |
Fuente: Agencias de Noticias y Revista Mundo Ciclístico