Bahrain - Victorious have been put under serious pressure on the second day of the Tour of the Alps, but in the end managed to take the win with a textbook leadout, delivering Pello Bilbao into the stage win and overall classification lead.
With a 20 kilometer ascent opening up the day, it was no surprise to see a big sequence of attacks that seemed to be a crucial GC move for the race. It included the likes of Miguel Ángel López, Pavel Sivakov, Michael Storer and several other quality climbers in a group of ten.
In the Passo Mendola, the main climb of the day four riders took advantage to stay up the road: Pavel Sivakov, Michael Storer, Thymen Arensman and Hermann Pernsteiner. In the final ascent Arensman was dropped, whilst Pernsteiner dropped back to assist in the chase that Bahrain - Victorious organized alongside AG2R. Bahrain did a whole-team effort throughout the final hours of racing to bring back the last escapees in the last descent, and still had the numbers to control the race until the final kilometers, where a sprint was expected - despite the brutal day.
Bahrain had the numbers and no-one tried to go over them in the final kilometer, they delivered Pello Bilbao in pole position for the sprint and the Basque took a dominant sprint win. Romain Bardet and Attila Valter finished second and third, whilst former race leader Geoffrey Bouchard was dropped in the final descent and arrived 35 seconds later.
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