Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla) shot to victory on the second stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, the Australian triumphing on the uphill finish at Ojo Guareña to score his third win of 2024.
Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took second place as Iván García Cortina (Movistar) rounded out the podium.
Ewan's win, which follows hot on the heels of his Vuelta a Castilla y Leon victory, saw him ride up front in second wheel for the majority of the 1.3km closing climb before he jumped out of Remy Rochas' (Groupama-FDJ) wheel in time for the closing sprint.
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He now takes over the leader's jersey, lying level on time with stage 1 winner Pavel Bittner (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), who finished ninth on the day. García Cortina lies in third overall at two seconds down.
"I knew it was going to be a hard finish for me with an uphill like that, but I had good support during the day," Ewan said after the stage. "I was really motivated to finish it off because I was a bit disappointed after yesterday's stage so I'm happy to pull it off today.
"It was super hard. I think they pretty much went full gas from bottom to top. My legs were hurting but I still had enough to do the sprint in the end."
The sprint finish had been set up after the last man standing from the day's breakaway, Gorka Sorrarain (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was brought back 6km from the line.
He had been joined in the move in the opening kilometres of the 161km stage by Mario Aparicio (Burgos-BH), Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Diego Sevilla (Polti-Kometa), though the break was never likely to last to the line on a stage suited to the versatile fastmen.
The quartet gained an advantage of four minutes at one point, though the likes of DSM-Firmenich PostNL kept things under control on the road to the finish.
At 34km from the finish, with the gap coming under a minute, the chase was disrupted by a mass crash in the peloton. Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) were among the major names caught up in the fall, though the peloton was soon reorganised in pursuit of the leaders.
DSM were joined by several other teams including Ineos Grenadiers and Jayco-AlUla in working on the front, while news filtered through that Caruso and Geoghegan Hart had been forced to abandon the race.
The break stuck together until they hit the 14km to go mark, at which point Sorrarain took off on his own, leaving his three breakmates to be caught 2km later. He'd last for 8km on the move, before he too was brought back.
Visma-Lease A Bike led the peloton into the final kilometres before Decathlon AG2R and Jayco took over heading into the climb. A couple of short-lived attacks on the way up couldn't disrupt the sprinter's hopes, however, and Ewan duly came through to deliver the 63rd win of his career.
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