Vuelta a Espana: Quintana wins stage 2

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Nairo Quintana (Movistar) laid down a huge marker on stage 2 of the Vuelta a Espana with a fine solo stage win in Calpe. The Movistar leader attacked with just over 3km to go from an elite group of six and held off a late charge to win ahead of Nicholas Roche (Team Sunweb) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).

The six-man group formed with around 20km remaining on a stage that many predicted would end in a bunch sprint. The key move was sparked by a joint attack from Roche and Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton Scott) with the pair quickly joined by Quintana, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First), Roglic, and Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates). The group of six was too strong for a chase that was lead by race leader Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) who was left isolated after a punishing stage.

As the leaders slowly built on their advantage the fight went out of the Lopez group, with the advantage slipping to almost 40 seconds at the finish line. Quintana’s attack with 3km to go was well-timed and perfectly executed. Nieve and Roglic both looked to mount a chase but the Colombian had more than enough in the tank to hold on for his second Grand Tour stage win of the season.

Roche claimed a well-deserved second place that saw him move into the race lead by two seconds ahead of Quintana with Uran a further six seconds down. Lopez has fallen to fifth at 33 seconds.

After two stages this Vuelta has proved to be to anything but predictable but Quintana has at least shown that he has the intent to contest for the overall standings. Lopez wasn't the only rider caught out on a day of intense drama. Wilco Kelderman, Esteban Chaves, Rafal Majka, and David De La Cruz all lost varying degrees of time.

How it unfolded

After yesterday's dramatic team time trial, the start of stage 2 was dominated by the riders and the entire Vuelta a Espana holding a minute's silence as they paid their respects to Bjorg Lambrecht, who tragically lost his life at the Tour de Pologne just a few weeks ago. His Lotto Soudal teammates, still raw from their loss, were intent on putting in a performance for the late Belgian and it was Sander Armée who made it into the main breakaway of the day. He was joined by Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), and eventually Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), and Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) as the four riders established a lead of almost seven minutes over the early climbs.

Astana was keen to exert their control on the race and held the break at a manageable gap before Bora-Hansgrohe joined the action by posting two domestiques towards the head of affairs. The gap began to eventually tumble after the feed zone and with 57km to go the advantage had slipped to just over two minutes.

When the time gap dropped to just over a minute, Armee sensed his moment. He attacked decisively with 39km to go, and although it was a move that would never make it to the line, it was the spirit of the attack that mattered.

Eight kilometres later it was all over for the Lotto Soudal rider, with Jumbo-Visma and Astana moving to the front ahead of the key final climb of the Alto de Puig Llorença with just over 20km to go.

Davide Formolo was the first rider to kick things off on the climb with a stinging attack that was followed by Pierre Latour and George Bennett but the move was brought back and then countered by Alejandro Valverde before a general regrouping on the descent.

With Astana short of numbers, Lopez needed to move with any dangerous attacks but he was found wanting when Roche and Subweb attacked with 20km to.

Roche and Nieve were soon joined by Uran, Quintana, Roglic, and Aru but there was no sign of Lopez as the leaders quickly gained a ten-second advantage. There were a few token pulls from Bora in the chase group but the onus was on Lopez's shoulders the moment he missed the key attack.

As the final kilometers unfolded it was clear that the Colombian was in trouble, as all the time he gained in yesterday's team time trial melted away in the Spanish heat.

When Quintana attacked with 3.1km to go, the rest of the leading group hesitated and the handful of seconds immediately gained were all the former Vuelta winner needed to take a morale-boosting victory.

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