27/08/2023

Andreas Kron wins stage 2 of the Vuelta a Espana with late attack as GC times neutralized

The second day of racing at the Vuelta a Espana was a chaotic one because of the weather and GC times neutralization, it was Andreas Kron who took the victory after attacking on the Alto de Montjuic.

Stage 2 began already with chaos as in the morning plenty decisions were taken due to the bad weather. Initially the final 3.6 kilometers were neutralized due to the technical and very wet roads in Barcelona, but ultimately the decision was taken to take the times with a whole 9 kilometers to go - with stage win and bonifications still up for grabs.

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With this a group of five riders formed the day's breakaway in an uphill start: Matteo Sobero (Team Jayco AlUla), Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), Javier Romo (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

At first a seemingly calm group but one that was to give a headache to the peloton. The gap was never too big but besides Team DSM-Firmenich there wasn't too much commitment, and the difficult weather conditions made it very hard to put on an efficient chase.

The day also saw it's fair share of crashes with Oscar Onley abandoning; race leader Lorenzo Milesi, Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas also hitting the deck in the final hour of racing. In the meantime Piccolo and Romo were isolated in the front of the race as the riders then crossed the 9Km to go mark and ticked down the overall times.

The breakaway catch was made with 8 kilometers to go. Rémy Rochas attacked from a reduced peloton as many had dropped back, and then he was counter-attacked by Andreas Kron. The Lotto Dstny rider got a gap and as expected grew it in the fast and wet descent as no-one in the case committed.

The gap was built and in the drag to the line the Dane had it in the pocket. He had time to celebrate the biggest victory of his career. Kaden Groves and Andrea Vendrame sprinted to second and third, whilst Andrea Piccolo has jumped into the race lead due to his breakaway efforts and the early time taking.