Mantecón and Bigham win stage 2 in Lanzarote

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Sergio Mantecón and Sally Bigham won the 60km stage 2 of the Club La Santa Four-Day MTB Race in Lanzarote on Sunday.

Bigham, who won the women's race and defended her overall lead, arrived at the finish more than 25 minutes ahead of Sandra Santanyes.  Mar Franco Peñuela was third.

After the race, Santanyes said of the course, "More technical trails and singletrack characterised the stage today, taking riders through Timanfaya National Park. It was like a ride on the moon: gnarly black lava rocks, stretching as far as the eye can see, flicked across the trail in unpredictable ways and loose terrain. It was sometimes sandy, other times deep gravel and was hard to find grip."

"Early parts of the course were open gravel roads, allowing riders to find their rhythm and settle down before the more tricky sections ahead. Many of the rocky, twisty trails are on narrow, elevated walls around farmers' fields. The consequences of a mistake are high - literally. Falling from one of the walls into the rocky field below isn't pretty, as one rider in front of me found out."

Sergio Mantecon made it two for two with his victory in the men's race.  Simon Stiebjahn and Tiago Ferreira were second and third.  The three men are also in the same places in the GC.

Tomorrow's stage 3 is a 20km uphill time trial, climbing 600m. It starts from the beach in Famara and follows a doubletrack leading up the cliff to a church overlooking the coastline.

Results