Yves Lampaert of Quick Step Floors has won the second stage of the 2017 Vuelta a España.
Stage Two took the riders out of Nimes and down the coast to Gruissan, Grand Narbonne, Aude.on a 203.4km stage, where crosswinds were the concern of the riders which had BMC’s Rohan Dennis in the leader’s jersey and Nicholas Roche in the KOM jersey.
There was no breaks in the first hour of racing which saw average speeds of 46.3kmh and still no breaks a hundred kilometres into the stage.
Chris Froome suffered a mechanical before there was a crash which saw Marc Fournier (FDJ), Javi Moreno (Bahrain), and Anass Aït El Abdia (UAE) all going down.
El Abdia and Javier Moreno, who was also involved, were forced to abandon the race which was still all together with twenty kilometres left.
There was a split in the peloton and fifteen were left in a front group with Quick Step having three riders in the front group. That worked to their advantage and they were able to get Yves Lampaert to the line first to win in 4:36:13 ahead of team mate Matteo Trentin and British rider Adam Blythe of Aqua Blue Sports.
The win means that Lampaert is the new leader of the race by a second from Matteo Trentin and speaking about his victory, Lampaert said: "At the moment I do not realise it. I don't know what's happening - it's really crazy for me.
"During the race we planned that if we could make an echelon, we would try in the last 10km. We went full gas from last three kilometres, then we were away with Alaphilippe and a few guys in the break. After that, just before the roundabout, they shouted at me, 'go go go!' I knew i could ride one kilometre very fast and it worked out."
Kev Monks for Digital Sports Group
Source: DSG
