Fantastic one-two for Bahrain-Victorious in Valencia: Buitrago wins ahead of Bilbao, Vacek clings to leader’s jersey

Santiago Buitrago won the second stage of the Tour of Valencia. The Colombian of Bahrain-Victorious was the strongest after a tough final climb, where he relegated teammate Bilbao to second place. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished third. Leader Mathias Vacek ( Lidl-Trek) held his own and kept the yellow jersey by a few seconds.

The Tour of Valencia steamed ahead at a brisk pace on stage two. After a team time trial on Wednesday, the riders faced a challenging mountain stage on Thursday. The 166-kilometer stage between La Nuciá and Benifato began quietly but ended in fireworks.

The second part of the hilly course consisted of a lot of climbing. First was the famous Coll de Rates, the most cycled mountain in the winter. Then they descended, and after a small break, the riders began another second-category climb. On top of the Benimantell (5.5km, 7%) was a sprint for bonus seconds. After that, the finish was on top of Benifato. This climb is 4.3 kilometers long at a whopping 9.5%: it is guaranteed to become a great battle!

After a few kilometers, five riders broke away from the peloton: Spaniards Pau Llaneras (Illes Balears Arabay), Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos Burpellet BH), Chilean Vicente Rojas (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Italian Samuele Zoccarato (Team Polti VisitMalta) and Frenchman Quentin Bezza (Wagner Bazin WB). However, the rider from Illes Balears Arabay soon had to drop out. On top of that, new attacks came from behind. Matyáš Kopecký (Team Novo Nordisk) and Cade Bickmore (Project Echelon Racing) managed to catch up, but also, for the Project Echelon Racing rider, the adventure was short-lived.

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Leading group caught, Foss with first attack

At this stage, we had a breakaway of four. In the peloton, Lidl-Trek obviously did most of the work; they gave the breakaway a good four-minute lead. At the foot of the Coll de Rates, the stage finale began. The leading group started with a 3:45 advantage. When the peloton started to attack, there was some nervousness. This led to a crash, with some riders going to the ground.

On the famous climb, UAE Team Emirates XRG attacked. The breakaway riders' advantage disappeared quickly. At the top, there was only a minute and a half left. Moreover, there were only two leaders left: Sinuhé Fernández and Matyáš Kopecký. The latter took the points. Their adventure was over 24 kilometers from the finish, so it was up to the climbers in the mountainous final stage. Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers) was the first to venture out, starting his adventure on his own.

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Vacek against the rest on final climb

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) and Iván Romeo (Movistar), the World U23 time trial champion, eventually joined the Norwegian. Vacek mainly had to set the pace himself in the background. Foss could not keep up with the pace at the front, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG was behind on the final climb. The two at the front had a nice advantage on the favorite group, which remained at 15 men.

In the last kilometers, João Almeida did what João Almeida does so well: he took the lead and set a scorching pace. Bilbao's lead dwindled, and he left Romeo behind. The pace of the Portuguese rider behind them was furious: only Jefferson Alexander Cepeda (Movistar) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) could keep up. Leader Vacek struggled on the steep sections and lost time. However, Almeida didn't get any closer to the tough Bilbao, so Buitrago attacked. He joined his teammate at lightning speed, took the lead, and secured the victory.

Results stage 2 Tour of Valencia

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