Vuelta a Burgos: Aberasturi wins stage 2

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Jon Aberasturi (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) won stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos, beating stage 1 winner Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) by two seconds on the uphill finish in Lerma. Jhonathan Narvaez (Team Ineos) took third place just behind Nizzolo.

For the second day in a row, the stage finale saw a showdown between the Italian sprinter and a Caja Rural rider. It was the Basque Country-based team who prevailed as Aberasturi's strength on the hill gave him a gap too large for Nizzolo to take back on the short flat section to the line.

The victory is Aberasturi's third of the season, and second in recent weeks after the Circuito de Getxo. Nizzolo retains the race lead, however, as Aberasturi rider finished over a minute down on the opening stage.

"I placed myself the best I could before the final climb," Aberasturi said. "Lastra did an incredible job, without him I do not know if I had won, possibly not, since he left me third in the last corner, behind Grosu and Nizzolo. At 200 meters from the finish I saw that I had good legs and, although I knew it could be long, I attacked. In the last 50 meters I looked back and I realized that I would win.

"It was also a good day for Aranburu. We started with two picks, although it is true that I started with a bit of an advantage, since it was a short and explosive final. The team protected me perfectly, they helped me a lot to achieve this important victory in an agonizing ending."

How it unfolded

The 155km-long stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos was another largely flat day, culminating in another uphill finish, this time a 2.5km 6 per cent romp over the cobbles of the main street in Lerma. Back in 2016, Nathan Haas took the win at the same finish.

The break of the day went away early on, with former Hour Record holder Mathias Brändle (Israel Cycling Academy) joined out front by Evgeny Koberynak (Gazprom-RusVelo), Iker Ballarin (Fundación Euskadi) and Daniel Viegas (Kometa Cycling Team).

The quartet was kept on a tight leash, with the peloton holding the time gap at a maximum of two minutes. With no classified climbs en route, there was precious little reward for the escapees, besides an intermediate sprint.

As the finish loomed and the peloton drew ever closer, Brändle who powered away from his companions with 20km to race. The Austrian held on well powering on alone in a time trial-style position. Heading into the final five kilometres he was still out front and enjoyed an advantage of 30 seconds over the Burgos-BH and Dimension Data-led peloton.

Brändle's adventure finally came to an end 1700 metres from the line as Ineos and Astana took to the front of the peloton ahead of the uphill finish.

As the peloton hit the climb to the line, which was lined with small cobblestones, Nizzolo and a Caja Rural rider separated themselves once more.

This time though, Caja Rural's contender was Aberasturi rather than Mikel Aranburu. Once he hit the front, Nizzolo couldn't make up the ground, and Aberasturi duly delivered Caja Rural's sixth win of 2019.

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