Vuelta Stage 2: Better day for Team Sky as Chris Sutton sprints to stage win

Chris Sutton of Team Sky made up for the Briitish outfit's disastrous team time trial in Benidorm yesterday evening by winning Stage 2 of the 2011 Vuelta at the seaside resort of Playes de Orihuelas this afternoon. The Australian attacked on what proved to be a very tricky final climb to the line, with Vicente Reynes of Omega Pharma-Lotto second and Marcel Kittel of Skil-Shimano third. Daniele Bennati of Leopard Trek is the new race leader. Sutton’s victory rounded off a great afternoon for Team Sky – earlier, Edvald Boasson Hagen had won the Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg.

A tricky approach to the line, with the road snaking as it rose up away from the beachfront inside the final 500 metres, made for a much tougher finish than it had appeared on paper and allowed Sutton and Reynes to get enough daylight over the chasing bunch to ensure that they would contest the finale.

It had been Leopard Trek’s David Viganò who had made the first move coming under the flamme rouge, and his team mate Fabian Cancellara then lead the peloton onto that final hill, looking to ensure that if overnight leader Jakob Fuglsang did lose top spot in the GC, it would be Bennati who would take over, and so it proved.

Although HTC-Highroad had done most of the work in chasing down an earlier break, the efforts of doing that meant that they faded somewhat in the closing stages, and the young German John Degenkolb ended up as their best-placed rider, in tenth place, with Mark Cavendish out of contention.

Today’s stage had headed south west along the Costa Blanca from the small town of La Nucia to the beach resort of Playas de Orihuela, passing through Alicante on the way. The temperature hit 40 degrees Centigrade on the first categorised climb of this year’s Vuelta, the Alto de Relleu, crested first by Paul Martens of Rabobank, who therefore becomes the first wearer of the polka dot jersey for the best climber in the 2011 Vuelta.

Although the heat eased off a little bit towards the coast, where there were also cooling winds, it made for an uncomfortable day in the saddle for many, and with hydration crucial, gave rise to the sight of Leopard Trek’s Fabian Cancellara playing domestique, riding back to his team mates with a good few cooling bidons stuffed under his Swiss national champion’s jersey.

Joining the German rider Martens in an early breakaway that had built a lead of six minutes by the time they passed through the town of Elche to swing back towards the coast were Adam Hansen of Omega Pharma-Lotto, AG2R’s Steve Houanard and Jesus Rosendo from the Spanish Professional Continental team, Andalucia Caja Granada.

It was Rosendo who lead the breakaway group through the day’s two intermediate sprints, which together with his climibing points puts him into the combination jersey this evening, but as the leaders approached the final 30 kilometres of the stage, the Australian rider Hansen attacked in a bid to go it alone.

The Omega Pharma-Lotto rider would be caught with around 18 kilometres left as the stage seemed certain to be heading towards a bunch sprint before that final little climb made its impact felt on the race.
 

Vuelta Stage 2 Result 
1  SUTTON, Chris          Team Sky              4h 11' 41''
2  REYNES, Vicente        Omega Pharma-Lotto    All at same time
3  KITTEL, Marcel         Skil-Shimano
4  FARRAR, Tyler          Garmin-Cervelo
5  BRESCHEL, Matti        Rabobank
6  BENNATI, Daniele       Leopard Trek
7  GASPAROTTO, Enrico     Astana
8  MONDORY, Lloyd         AG2R
9  PAOLINI, Luca          Katusha
10 DEGENKOLB, John        HTC-Highroad
11 SAGAN, Peter           Liquigas-Cannondale
12 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen Omega Pharma-Lotto
13 PETACCHI, Alessandro   Lampre-ISD
14 VAN AVERMAET, Greg     BMC Racing
15 MOLLEMA, Bauke         Rabobank
16 HAEDO, Juan Jose       Saxo Bank-SunGard
17 NIBALI, Vincenzo       Liquigas-Cannondale
18 TAARAMAE, Rein         Cofidis
19 FUGLSANG, Jakob        Leopard Trek
20 SCARPONI, Michele      Lampre-ISD

Vuelta Overall Standings after Stage 2 
1  BENNATI, Daniele       Leopard Trek          4h 28' 11''
2  FUGLSANG, Jakob        Leopard Trek           Same time
3  SAGAN, Peter           Liquigas-Cannondale         + 4''
4  NIBALI, Vincenzo       Liquigas-Cannondale         + 4''
5  AGNOLI, Valerio        Liquigas-Cannondale         + 4''
6  DEGENKOLB, John        HTC-Highroad                + 9''
7  MONFORT, Maxime        Leopard Trek               + 10''
8  KITTEL, Marcel         Skil-Shimano               + 10''
9  GASPAROTTO, Enrico     Astana                     + 10''
10 KISERLOVSKI, Robert    Astana                     + 10''