Pinot beats Contador to win stage 2 of Ruta del Sol

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Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) claimed the Ruta del Sol's second stage on Thursday, ahead of Trek-Segafredo's Alberto Contador, who now leads the general classification.

Contador delivered a powerful attack on the finishing climb of the Alto Peña del Águila, inside the final 3km of the day, but Pinot tracked down the move and overtook the Spaniard inside the last 200 metres. He ultimately finished two seconds ahead of Contador for the stage victory, while Contador's efforts at least earned him the leader's jersey. Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, who started the day atop the GC, finished third, seven seconds behind Pinot.

For much of the 177.9km stage, it seemed like a victory might be in the cards for the early breakaway. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Felix Grosschartner (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Xandro Meurisse (Wanty - Groupe Gobert), Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Georg Preidler (Team Sunweb) formed the day's main escape group not long after the bunch set out from Torredonjimeno.

The group worked well together to push their advantage out to eight minutes by the midway point of the race. With roughly 60km to go, Wellens and Grosschartner attacked from the break to form a new lead group of two. 15 minutes later, Wellens rode away from Grosschartner to make it a breakaway of one at the head of affairs.

The Belgian maintained a healthy gap as he worked his way toward the foot of the finishing climb in Mancha Real on the outskirts of Jaén, but the peloton gradually got organised in pursuit. From there, Wellens' advantage fell rapidly.

The pack swept him up with around six kilometres left to race on the early slopes of the final climb.

Sunweb's Warren Barguil tried his luck with an attack from five kilometres out, but the move was short-lived. Team Sky's Mikel Landa jumped clear a kilometre later, initially getting a small gap before Trek-Segafredo took up the chase for Contador. With just under three kilometres to go, Contador was within a few bike lengths of Landa, and that's when he made his move, sailing past his compatriot to power ahead on his own.

The other contenders struggled to counter Contador's assault. Pinot managed to keep Contador within striking distance, lurking a few seconds back, while race leader Valverde fell behind with Bahrain-Merida's Ion Izagirre. Their duo grew to a quartet with Sky's Landa and Diego Rosa joining in, but the group of four was unable to put much of a dent into the advantage of the two riders ahead.

Pinot bridged the gap to Contador in sight of the finish line, overhauling him with 200 metres to go and claiming the stage victory. Valverde and Izagirre crossed the line seven seconds behind Pinot, with Landa and Rosa two seconds further back.

Having finished five seconds ahead of Pinot on the opening stage, however, Contador secured the race lead ahead of Friday's 12km individual time trial from Lucena to Córdoba. Pinot now sits second overall, with Valverde dropping to third. 

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