The “Ruta del Sol” stepped up another notch on Thursday during a short but lively second stage to Otura, where a strong breakaway duo managed to pull it off. Ivan Romeo took the victory and moved into the overall lead, while Romain Grégoire (10th), Bastien Tronchon and Clément Braz Afonso crossed the line with the main peloton nearly a minute later.
Despite being just 140 kilometres long, the second stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia was anything but a leisurely ride. After a start along the coast, the peloton faced a relentless 25-kilometre climb averaging 5% — more than enough to shake up the race and launch the first major attacks. Although an early break went clear before the Puerto de la Cabra, the race was reshuffled in the toughest middle section of the ascent. Ivan Romeo and Andreas Leknessund launched their move there, bridging across to the last survivor of the morning break, Josh Burnett. “They went really hard when everyone was still trying to measure their effort,” said Yvon Caër. “On those kinds of gradients, those two riders are very comfortable. We knew they were real powerhouses, and once they went over the summit, we knew it would be difficult.” The duo reached the top around 30 seconds ahead of a group of favourites that included Clément Braz Afonso, before a first peloton of around thirty riders — also featuring Romain Grégoire and Maxime Decomble — regrouped. “Visma-Lease a Bike was waiting for Laporte to come back, but the damage was already done,” Yvon added. “We also thought UAE would take responsibility — which they partly did — but they couldn’t close the gap.”
Instead, after a spell of hesitation in the bunch, the gap stretched out to three minutes before a second small group, including Bastien Tronchon, managed to come back. Several teams joined forces to bring the gap down, but the two escapees proved too strong. “The two riders out front really crushed the peloton,” Yvon said. “We also asked Clément to pull in the last 25 kilometres because you never know what can happen, but on 4–5% gradients they were moving just as fast as we were, and they never looked at each other.” On the final five-kilometre false flat, the gap came back to around one minute, but Romeo and Leknessund were never truly under threat. The Spaniard eventually took the win, while Romain Grégoire sprinted to tenth place from a reduced peloton that also included Bastien Tronchon and Clément Braz Afonso.“We don’t really have any regrets because it would have meant taking a very big risk to follow them, and I don’t think we had the legs at that moment,” Yvon concluded. “Despite today’s scenario, there’s still a great opportunity for Romain to achieve a strong overall result. That’s why we came here, and we’ll fight for it until the end. We’ll also make sure Bastien or Paul get their chances on stages three and four.”
