Tour Colombia: Hodeg wins stage 2 in La Ceja

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Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-Quickstep) claimed an emphatic stage win on home soil with a powerful sprint on stage 2 of Tour Colombia 2.1.

Martin Laas (Team Illuminate) and Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) proved unable to overtake the young Colombian, while Estonian champion Mihkel Räim (Israel Cycling Academy) was fourth.

Thanks to the time bonuses, Hodeg moved into the race lead over Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First).

"The victory today more than myself, was because of my team," Hodeg said. "They did an impressive job, Jungels, Iljo, Alaphillippe, they all did everything they could for me, and so now I appreciate all the work they did for me. I believe this victory is more theirs than mine. We raced today for the stage. We weren’t thinking about the GC. Nothing changed for me. We knew what we came here to do. We did it without thinking about the other teams. I simply focused on what I needed to do, as always, for my sprint."

Noticably absent from the action at the head of the race in the final kilometre was Fernando Gaviria, who recently won two stages in Argentina at Vuelta a San Juan. He rode back to the team area and was quickly out of sight into the UAE Team Emirates van. Hodeg said he's not sure what happened to his rival.

"I did not know what happened with Gaviria," Hodeg said. "In the final kilometers there was a group to the left. We knew that we needed to start there because it was a little dangerous. Jungels went from there and then Alaphilippe at 1km to go before he peeled off for Richeze, who went at 400m and then it was up to me in the final 200m."

How it unfolded

The second stage in Colombia took the peloton around a relatively flat circuit in La Ceja for 150.5km. The route featured a category 4 KOM 10km into the stage and three intermediate sprints at kilometres 24.1, 51.4 and 78.7.

A breakaway of six riders escaped the bunch just before the first KOM, where José Tito Hernández (Orgullo Paisa) took the top honours at the day's only KOM, securing the mountains jersey head of stage 3.

The group of six then built a gap of 3:45 to the peloton and the chase was on. In the move were Orgullo Paisa's Hernández, Luis Felipe Laverde (GW Shimano), Stiven Cuesta (Deprisa Bolivia), Simon Pellaud (IAM Excelsior), Germán Chaves (Coldeportes Zenú) and Óscar Sevilla (Team Medellín). Sevilla was the virtual leader on the road.

With 40km remaining, the gap to the leaders was 2:45. Sevilla and Pellaud then attacked the group and dropped their companions, and with 20km remaining, the lead duo had 25 seconds on Chaves and Laverde, with the peloton at 1:50.

EF Education First was amassed on the front powering the chase to protect Uran's lead, but the gap went up slightly to 1:55 as Pellaud and Sevilla continues to push their advantage. Adding to the gap was short-lived, however, as eventually, the chase had the gap down to 1:10 and then 55 seconds.

When the gap dropped below 30 seconds, Sevilla's chances of taking the race leader's jersey looked dim, and when UAE Team Emirates came forward to chase for Fernando Gaviria, the gap was down to 15 seconds with less than 10km remaining.

The day off the front was soon over for Pellaud and Sevilla, as the chase caught its prey and sprinters' teams began to set up for the finale. Carlos Alzate (GW Shimano) and Edwin Avilla (Isreal Cycling Academy) jumped away in the final kilometre and stretched out the chase, but in the end Deceuninck-QuickStep set up Hodeg perfectly for the stage victory aead of Laas, Molano and Räim, who said Avilla's attack was a chance for the Colombian to show himself to the home crowd.

"I had [Clement] Carisey and [Daniel] Turek to help me," Räim said of the finale. "Edwin had more free rein, so it was nice to show his home people what he can do. I think with this team here we did really well, just it's hard to compete with the top sprinters at the moment. It was a good beginning, because it was a really hard stage for a flat stage. It was really crazy."

Räim's Estonian compatriot Laas was equakly enthused about his runner-up result against the Worldtour competition. 

"I just know that it was a fast sprint," Laas told Cyclingnews. "I had a 54 in front. It wasn't so, so fast, but it was like in Europe you don't find a finish so fast. It was a great final. There wasn't as much stress as I expected. I expected much stress and much mess, but it wasn't bad.

"I was in seventh or eighth position I think," Laas says. "For sure it's better if I can stay next to the QuickStep train, then maybe there is a chance to beat QuickStep. But if you're coming from seventh or sixth position, it's quite hard already. But we are a Continental team competing with WorldTour teams, so I am really happy about the result and the team effort today. I was coming here for a top three, and I was second, so it's better for us."

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