Vuelta a España: Marc Soler solos to victory on stage 2

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Marc Soler (Movistar) won stage 2 of the Vuelta a Espana with a late solo attack from a select group on another demanding day in the mountains in Navarre.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) led home a nine-man group of GC contenders to finish second, successfully defending the red jersey.

Soler, having earlier diminished the peloton to just a select handful of favourites on the San Miguel de Aralar, and, with team leaders Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde ensconced in the group, was allowed freedom to attack on the descent to the finish and win the stage.

The win was Soler's first at Grand Tour level and his biggest since his breakthrough overall victory at the 2018 Paris-Nice.

“I’m very happy because we're racing on home roads," Soler said. "This was a stage we really wanted to win and we’d studied the roads this week. This is my first win in a Grand Tour and I’m very happy about that. It pays us back for all the hard work done during what has been a very difficult year. It’s great for all the team and I can only thank them for their support.

"We knew the climb and Carlos Verona set a high pace. Then I kept going as fast as I could. If I got caught I knew that Alejandro could perhaps win. But I stayed out front and made it to the finish."

Finishing 19 seconds behind him was a group of overall favourites, consisting of Roglic, George Bennett, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation), Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott).

The only riders missing from the top 10 of the general classification formed after yesterday's opening stage were Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Andrea Bagioli (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who were both dropped on the climb.

In an eventful stage, Movistar had earlier in the day capitalised on windy conditions to cause splits in the peloton, although none of the major favourites were caught out, while Richard Caparaz also put in a short-lived surprise attack on the run-in to the final climb.

"We know they are really strong, we could feel it today. They did great racing," Roglic said of the Movistar effort

"Again at the end nice result - it was a hard day, nervous because of the wind and a hard climb at the end. But our team did again a good job controlling the whole day and they keep me in the right position. in the climb it was a hard pace. Soler went away - he deserved to win."

How it unfolded

Following yesterday's uphill finish to Monte Arrate, stage 2 was expected to be another early GC showdown. The category one San Miguel de Aralar awaited the riders near the end of the stage, followed by a 17km descent to the finish in Lekunberri.

The large time gaps produced by yesterday's stage meant that several riders already far adrift in the standings fancied their chance of getting into today's break, and the stage began with a flurry of attacks out of the peloton.

Following failed attempts from the likes of Pim Ligthart (Total Direct Energie) and Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), a four-man group succeeded in breaking clear, consisting of Julius van den Berg (EF Pro Cycling), Julien Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Juan Felipe Osorio (Burgos-BH) and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), who was also in the break yesterday.

That wasn't the end of matters, however, and a fast pace was maintained in the peloton to keep them in sight during the run-in to the day's first climb, the category three Puerto de Guirguillano. There was a big reshuffle on that climb, and after cresting it a new group of five formed: Wellens, Alex Aranburu (Astana), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Jonathan Hivert (Total Direct Energie) and Gonzalo Serrano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

Their gap grew out to four minutes and remained at around that amount for a while as Jumbo-Visma set a steady pace in the peloton.

At 72km from the finish, Wellens attacked the rest of the break on the category 3 Puerto de Urbasa, and by the top had put 1:37, as well as extending his lead over the peloton to over six minutes.

After cresting the climb, the pace in the peloton suddenly increased as Movistar accelerated as the wind blew on a section of exposed roads. Eight riders gained a small gap over the rest of the peloton, among them Primoz Roglic, until everything partially settled down again after a change of direction into more sheltered roads.

The damage had been done, however, and large groups still trailed the peloton as Movistar continued to set a pace.

Guillaume Martin, who placed 18th on yesterday's stage, was the highest-ranked rider on GC to be caught out, and his Cofidis team tried in vain to close the gap.

The action had a detrimental effect on the breakaway, which by the 40km to go point held a lead of just 3:08 on the peloton, with Wellens a further 40 seconds ahead. It was at this moment that Wellens thought better of his bold solo attack, and slowed down to rejoin his former breakaway companions.

It wasn't long before the break fractured again, however, as Armirail attacked almost immediately after its reforming. With the peloton now less than a minute adrift, however, Armirail was only delaying the inevitable.

There was another surprise move in the peloton 33km from the finish when Richard Caparaz attacked with teammate Andrey Amador. They caught the residue of the break, with Aranburu and later Armirail latching on to form a quartet, and held a lead of about ten seconds at the foot of the final climb, San Miguel de Aralar.

Although the four riders were caught shortly after the beginning of the climb, the peloton was now heavily reduced after Movistar, and Jumbo-Visma, had upped the pace in order to neutralise Carapaz.

As Movistar continued to set the pace, the peloton was reduced to around just thirty riders, with Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) the biggest name to be dropped. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) attacked 5.7km from the top of the climb, and stayed out front in the lead until 2.5km from the top, by which time the peloton had been further reduced to fifteen riders, with Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe), who was fifth yesterday, among those dropped.

Marc Soler continued to set a vicious pace up the final part of the climb, until just eight riders remained with him: teammates Enric Mas and Valverde, Carapaz, Dan Martin, Carthy, Chaves, Kuss and overall leader Roglic.

Carapaz attacked over the summit and continued to pile the pressure on the descent, but the others managed to reel him in.

Despite having done so much work on the climb, Soler had the legs to attack on the descent, opening up an advantage of over 20 seconds.

Having rejoined the group of favourites on the descent, George Bennett joined Kuss in setting the pace for their leader Roglic, but Soler continued to fly down the descent and held enough of an advantage to celebrate victory at the line.