Ruta del Sol: Ethan Hayter wins stage 2

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Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) won stage 2 of the Ruta del Sol on a viscously steep climb in the final kilometre. 

The British rider becomes the new overall leader of the race, after yesterday’s victor Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) was distanced on the climb. 

Serrano’s teammate Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) was second behind Hayter eight seconds adrift, having earlier been part of a 10-man group that had gone clear from the peloton on the previous climb.

From that group, Toms Skujins had broken clear on the top of that climb, and approached the last kilometre with what appeared to be a healthy advantage. 

But he was undone on what was an extraordinary final kilometre, which featured double-digit gradients and very rough cobbled surfaces, all against the spectacular backdrop of a citadel in Alcala de la Real.

Skujins was reduced almost to walking pace, allowing Hayter to fly past him to take the win. 

“I was in quite a good position, with [his teammate] Carlo [Rodriguez] in front after the longer climb,” said Hayter at the finish. “So I just followed. I had to make sure I kept a good position as it would be hard to move up on the cobbles. 

“Everyone else around me just blew up. I blew up as well, but I had a gap so I had the motivation to hang on."

The riders behind reached the finish scattered across the road in dribs and drabs, with Lopez in second at eight seconds down, followed by Sven Erik Bystrom (UAE Team Emirates) at 10 seconds, Hayter’s teammate Rodriguez and Julien Amezgueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) both at 14 seconds, and Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Robert Stannard (BikeExchange) at 18 seconds.

“It was borderline crazy, but that’s bike racing sometimes. I guess it put on a show. It was definitely the hardest part [of the stage] by far."

How it unfolded

It was another hot day in Andalucia, with temperatures into thigh 20s Celsius.

Despite crashing yesterday, Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) once again got up the road at the start of the stage, to form the day’s five-man break along with Tim Roosen (Jumbo-Visma), Alvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Fenix), Aaron van Poucke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Antonio Jesus Soto (Euskaltel-Euskadi).  

Oliveira was out to defend his King of the Mountains jersey, and was allowed to take maximum points on the first of two ascents of the category two Alto de la Hortichuela, crested 65k from the finish. 

Disaster struck the break on the descent of that climb when Bayer crashed around a corner, with Van Poucke and Soto also falling in reaction, and Olivera being redirected off-road where he also came down. 

That left just Roosen and Cuadros out front, as the fallers were too badly hurt and held up to catch back up, but the pair continued to press on together. 

The peloton had brought their lead down to just 1:30 as Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and then Movistar set a pace on the climb, but slowed down again subsequently. It was slow enough for Serrano to take a late comfort break, and grew back up to around 2:45, despite the break’s lack of firepower in light of the crash.

The letting up didn’t last long, however, and soon Movistar and Trek-Segafredo upped the pace again with Equipo Kern Pharma, with the aim both of catching the leading duo and setting their leaders up for the final climb. 

As the gap was coming down, there was another crash around 30km from the finish, this time towards the back of the peloton, involving Owen Geleijn (Jumbo-Visma) and Edwin Avila (Burgos-BH).

Roosen and Cuadros had just 20 seconds by the start of the climb, and were shortly caught on the climb 17km from the finish by a peloton now being led by Equipo Kern Pharma. 

Some riders were spat out the back on the climb, including yesterday’s runner-up Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo) was the first to attack on the climb, and was joined by two other riders, but Movistar were alert to the danger and brought them back before the top. 

It transpired that the Spanish team were setting up Miguel Angel Lopez for an attack, as the Colombian launched himself up the road shortly after the catch was made. There was a scramble among the other GC contenders to follow him, and a group of nine other riders joined him at the front of the race, consisting of: Ilnur Zakarin (Gazprom-RusVelo), Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma) and Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Jmes Piccoli (Israel-StartUp Nation), Jonathan Lastra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Jose Felix Parra Cuerda (Equipo Kern Pharma), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Tsgabu Grmay (BikeExchange)

Of those escapees, Skujins was determined to go clear and made a couple of attacks, and managed to crest the top of the climb with a small gap.  

Despite the crash that had occurred here in the break on this same descent earlier in the day Skujins showed no fear going down it, and opened up a significant lead over the chasers. 

Once these chasers lost cohesion and began attacking each other, it became clear that their time was up, and they were caught by the peloton just as the brutal final kilometres began.

Lopez nevertheless still had plenty of energy in reserve for the final climb, and succeeded in passing Skujins, but not before Hayter had already launched himself up the road for his stage-winning move.