Brennan claims second stage victory with ease after great echelon spectacle: Roglic loses leader's jersey

Two mountain stages, two times the same scenario: the Tour of Catalonia has been a pleasure so far. On Wednesday, Juan Ayuso won by a narrow margin ahead of Primoz Roglic, but the roles were reversed on Thursday. The Slovenian was too fast for the Spaniard, taking over the leader's jersey. After two mountain stages, it was back to the sprinters on Friday, where the list of participants had already been considerably reduced. Kaden Groves, second in stage one, was no longer there, for example, and so most eyes were on Matthew Brennan.

The British rider from Visma | Lease a Bike wore the points jersey of the best sprinter. The opening phase of the stage was relatively tricky but nothing to be afraid of: it did provide a nice launch pad for breakaway riders. Seven men were ultimately successful, including Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2r La Mondiale), Michael Leonard (INEOS Grenadiers), and Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ). In the windy hills, they managed to build a lead of about two minutes, but UAE Team Emirates and Visma | Lease a Bike maintained a high pace.

The roads towards the finish in Amposta were uncharacteristically wide and flat. The leaders had a difficult time against the peloton. In this phase, they were also prepared for echelons: the wind could play a significant role. Most of the breakaway riders admitted defeat, but Paleni and Jokin Murguialday (Euskaltel-Euskadi) still managed to stay ahead. It was pointless, even though the peloton briefly slowed down. The lead grew to over a minute. It was a relatively uneventful finale, except in L'Aldea, where there was an intermediate sprint in the village, where Ayuso grabbed a second. That made him the new leader of the GC.

Although the run-up to the finish was still rather boring, it suddenly exploded in the last 20 kilometers. The wind was finally favorable, and so echelons were triggered. Ayuso, Roglic, Egan Bernal, and Enric Mas were there, but men like Mikel Landa, Lenny Martinez, and Lennert Van Eetvelt failed to get in the mix. Visma was also well represented at the front, with Brennan, Sepp Kuss, Steven Kruijswijk, Menno Huising Wilco Kelderman, and Simon Yates.

The second group worked and worked, but the best men were simply upfront. The GC men and the sprinters benefited from this, so the pace was kept extremely high. It developed into a sprint. Axel Laurance went first, and Marijn van den Berg seemed to be in a perfect position, but Brennan had a lot more speed and won with ease. The second group eventually lost more than 40 seconds.