2020 Vuelta a Espana – Stage 2 – Highlights, Report, Results
Highlights
Report
It was a day the Movistar Team really hoped to enjoy on home roads. Stage two of La Vuelta would be covered entirely in Navarra, with the 151km route from Pamplona to Lekunberri featuring the climbs of Guirguillano (Cat-3), Urbasa (Cat-3) and the tough San Miguel de Aralar (Cat-1; 9.4km at 7.9%), on concrete roads, 16 kilometers before the end.
After great battle for the early break in the ascent + downhill of the Alto de Guirguillano, a five-man escape with Aranburu (AST), Wellens (LTS), Serrano (CJR), Armirail (GFC) and Hivert (TDE) was able to stay away from the peloton. Jumbo-Visma calmly took command of the pace at the bunch, consenting a maximum gap of four minutes for the escapees.
Prior to the slopes of Urbasa, Wellens left the rest of the breakaway group behind and went solo for a chance to win the stage. However, and as his advantage increased at the top of the climb (-60 km) to a promising seven minutes, Jorge Arcas picked up the pace and anticipated a crosswind attempt which split the peloton into several pieces.
The pressure by Erviti, Oliveira and Rojas reduced the main group to about 70 riders and ruined the breakaway’s chances, its last survivors being caught at the foot of San Miguel de Aralar, 25km before the end. At the climb, Carlos Verona kept a hard pace and further reduced the size of a peloton where Marc Soler set the adequate rhythm to leave only the main favourites behind him: an eight-man group, with three Movistar Team riders (including Valverde and Mas), which the Catalan momentarily dropped back from near the top.
Soler took advantage from a stop in the leading group in the beginning of the downhill and attacked as soon as he bridged back. It was soon clear no one would ever get back to the Vilanova native, who scored his second victory of 2020 -the first one obtained in Mallorca, back in February- and opened the Movistar Team’s account in this year’s La Vuelta. Behind at the GC group, Enric Mas climbed up to fifth overall, with Alejandro Valverde, just ahead of his young team-mate at the finish (5th), sits just outside a top-ten now completed by a brilliant Soler.
Results
Stage
| 1 | Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team | 03:47:04 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:19 |
| 3 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 00:00:19 |
| 4 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:19 |
| 5 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:00:19 |
| 6 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:00:19 |
| 7 | Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:00:19 |
| 8 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 00:00:19 |
| 9 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:19 |
| 10 | George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:19 |
General Classification
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 08:09:41 |
| 2 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 00:00:09 |
| 3 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 00:00:11 |
| 4 | Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott | 00:00:17 |
| 5 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:00:17 |
| 6 | Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling | 00:00:20 |
| 7 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:26 |
| 8 | George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma | 00:00:56 |
| 9 | Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 00:00:59 |
| 10 | Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team | 00:01:04 |
Points
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma | 45 |
| 2 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 34 |
| 3 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 32 |
| 4 | Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team | 25 |
| 5 | Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott | 23 |
Mountains
| 1 | Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers | 14 |
| 2 | Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma | 14 |
| 3 | Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 6 |
| 4 | Quentin Jauregui (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 6 |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation | 6 |
Young Riders
| 1 | Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team | 08:09:58 |
| 2 | Andrea Bagioli (Ita) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 00:01:29 |
| 3 | Gino Mäder (Swi) NTT Pro Cycling | 00:02:13 |
| 4 | David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 00:03:03 |
| 5 | Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana Pro Team | 00:05:12 |