Moreno wins second straight stage at Vuelta a Burgos

It was a case of déjà vu for Daniel Moreno (Katusha) as he once again outsprinted Sergio Henao (Sky) for a stage victory at the Vuelta a Burgos on an uphill finish. The 30-year-old Spaniard crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of the Colombian while Simon Clarke (Orica GreenEdge) finished a further five seconds back to round out the top three. Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) led in a group of 14 riders nine seconds down on Moreno as the peloton fractured on the finishing ascent, the category three El Castillo which was climbed three times during the 141km stage.

Moreno earned the leader's jersey with his victory on yesterday's opening stage, and defended his general classification lead today. The Katusha rider leads Henao by two seconds overall, with Matti Breschel (Rabobank) in third at nine seconds.

Moreno again was quick to credit his Katusha teammates for setting him up for victory in the stage finale.

"I want to thank my teammates, they allowed me to be in fourth, fifth position when the last climb started," said Moreno. "Purito was especially incredible: he was great when he launched my sprint, he imposed a very tough pace and I had to do nothing but do my best in the last 300 meters.

"These stages were very actually suitable to my characteristics, but I admit I'm very satisfied with my condition at this time," said Moreno, who returned to competition in the Vuelta a Burgos after taking a nearly two-month hiatus from racing. "Tomorrow should be for sprinters, but the day after tomorrow there will be the stage I won last year. Since we've done a great job so far, we can try to repeat Joaquim's general classification win in 2011."

Stage two's early escape formed after 20 kilometres of racing and was comprised of Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi), David Belda and Carlos Verona (Burgos BH), Ramirez Bee (Andalucia) and Aritz Etxebarria (Orbea). Katusha kept tight control over the break's lead, never letting them gain more than two minutes, and ultimately reeled them back in with 14 kilometres remaining.

Team Sky took over the pace-making in the approach to the El Castillo climb with Ben Swift launching an attack early on the ascent. Katusha's Joaquim Rodriguez, the defending Vuelta a Burgos champion, neutralised Swift's escape and provided the perfect springboard for Moreno to make his winning move inside of 500 metres to go. Henao and Clarke gave chase, but were unable to bring back the Spaniard in the stage endgame.