Hutarovich stuns in Marbella

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Yauheni Hutarovich of the Francaise des Jeux team surprised the big-name sprinters to win stage two of the Vuelta in Marbella.

The big man from Belarus found a late burst of speed to edge out Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) in the sprint to take the first grand tour stage win of his career. Hutarovich has now won five races this season, including a recent stage at the Tour of Poland, but has never beaten sprinters of the calibre of Cavendish, Farrar and Petacchi.

“My win may seem a surprise but this is my third grand tour and I’d come to win a stage,” Hutarovich said.

“My stage win at the Tour of Poland was my first one at ProTour level. It was instrumental in building my confidence so that I could get my first win in a grand tour.”

“I decided to follow Cavendish after being well positioned by my teammates. I stayed on his wheel and I waited for the right moment to get out. When I won I couldn’t believe, but I’d seen that Cavendish was struggling and so I gave it everything and it worked out perfectly. I’m delighted for myself and for my team.”

First grand tour win

The Belarusian rode the Giro d'Italia in 2008 and the Tour de France in 2009, where he finished third in the 11th stage, and finished the race as lantern rouge.

Hutarovich's luck seems to have changed this year, as he has racked up two stage wins at the Tour Mediterraneen, and wins at the Circuit de Lorraine and the Tour of Poland. However, his degree of recognition within the peloton could be seen from Oscar Freire's remark at the finish: “Hutarovich? That's the first time I've heard that name.”

Mark Cavendish was perhaps thinking the same but the Briton could be consoled by the fact that he was able to keep the red race leader's jersey even though Hutarovich gained an advantage through the time bonus for the stage win. Cavendish leads teammate Kanstantin Sivtsov by 12 seconds, with Peter Velits, Tejay Van Garderen, Matt Goss, and Hayden Roulston in the same time.

Tyler Farrar moved up to seventh overall at 21 seconds thanks to the time bonuses, while Hutarovich moved to 16th at 25 seconds.

Cavendish also kept the lead in the points classification while Mickael Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto) claimed the first mountains jersey of the race for taking first on the day's only classified climb atop the category 3 Alto de Pruna.

The break of the day

The break of the day during the 173.7km stage began with an escape group after only four kilometres. Mickael Buffaz (Cofidis), Mickael Delage (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Johnnie Walker (Footon-Servetto) and Javier Ramirez (Andalucia-CajaSur) jumped away and built up a quick lead of over six minutes. Buffaz was then the first rider to quit this year’s Vuelta after he broke a collarbone when he crashed shortly before the day's only serious climb.

The remaining trio stayed in front on the long, hot day, with HTC-Columbia, protecting race leader Mark Cavendish and leading the chase to pull them back.

With some 46km to go, Marcos Garcia of Xacobeo-Galicia took off out of the peloton, which was by then only about two minutes back. The Spaniard worked his way up to the leading trio but then Walker took off out of the group, but was caught again with about 15 km to go. With 12.5km to go, the peloton caught them all and a sprint was inevitable.

Danilo Hondo of Lampre-Farnese Vini opened up the sprint with Alessandro Petacchi on his rear wheel. Tyler Farrar of Garmin shot by them and was in turn passed by Cavendish who had got on his wheel in the final 500 metres. But it was Hutarovich who powered his way past all the big names at the last 50 metres to take the biggest victory of his career and made sure everyone now knows his name.

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