Egan Bernal climbed to an impressive fourth place on stage two of the Vuelta a Espana, as the race produced an early showdown for the general classification contenders.
On wet Italian roads, the peloton tackled the second-category Limone Piemonte summit, with Bernal accelerating well in the final metres.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) claimed the victory despite going down in a large crash on a slippy roundabout with 26 kilometres remaining.
Victor Langellotti also went down in the pileup but was able to remount and claim 15th place on the stage. The INEOS Grenadiers put in a strong lead out display on the climb, with Michal Kwiatkowski, Ben Turner and Filippo Ganna laying the groundwork before big turns from Bob Jungels and Brandon Rivera.
Magnus Sheffield was also involved in a crash on the run-in but was able to finish without issue.
Bernal now sits fourth overall, 10 seconds back on Vingegaard and two seconds ahead of a number of other GC rivals after finding himself on the right side of a time gap split.
Reaction
- Egan Bernal
“I actually didn’t think of fighting for the win. I started the stage with a different mindset. Yet I found myself at the front, and decided to try my luck. It’s good for my morale to be up there. There was some stress in the bunch, as usual in the first week of a Grand Tour. Luckily I felt very protected all day long thanks to teammates like Ben, Pippo, Kwiato… I came out alright from the stage thanks to them.”
Elsewhere on a busy Sunday, the Deutschland Tour concluded with an unlucky finish for Sam Watson. Fourth overnight, the Brit was then held up on the run-in by a crash with 5.3km to go. Unable to rejoin the peloton, the subsequent time loss dropped Watson to 13th overall.
Geraint Thomas and Artem Shmidt were also held up by the crash but were able to remount and conclude the stage.
Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) took the sprint win on the final day, with Soren Waerenskjold (Uno X Mobility) claiming the overall.
In Belgium Renewi Tour also concluded in a sprint finish finale. Axel Laurance came home 10th on the day, making it three top-10 finishes in succession.