Vuelta Asturias: Ivan Garcia Cortina nabs breakaway win on stage 2

Iván García Cortina (Movistar) secured the stage 2 victory at Vuelta Asturias, crossing the finish line by a whisker ahead of runner-up Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in Pola de Lena.

The pair were part of an original breakaway, but Cortina attacked with seven kilometres to go and held off Johansen to take the day's win.

Johansen's UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Marc Soler was the lone chaser behind the pair in the closing kilometres, but his third-place finish meant that he moved into the overall race lead.

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The second stage of the Vuelta Asturias was a 144.3km race from Benia de Onís to Pola de Lena. There were five categorized ascents, but four were positioned in the last 60 kilometres of the stage, before a descent and a short run-in to the finish line.

Five riders emerged in an early breakaway that included Johansen, Cortina, Iker Gomez (Spain), and My Velo Pro Cycling teammates Jakob Schmidt and Jan Sommer.

The breakaway extended its lead on the main peloton to more than 10 minutes at the 60km mark, but that gap began to drop as the race hit the more mountainous second half of the race.

By the time they reached the third-to-last climb of the day, Alto de la Colladiella, the gap was down to under eight minutes, and dropping fast. 

The breakaway riders began to split apart on the ascents, with Johansen and Cortina opening a gap on their companions. As the remnants of the breakaway were reabsorbed into the field, Soler launched his attack with 20km to go in pursuit of the two leaders on the road.

At seven kilometres out, Cortina made his winning move and opened a small gap on Johansen, holding onto a one-second lead as he crossed the line with the victory.

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