In the second stage the big gaps should be made as the final climb looks harder than the one from the fourth stage. Ricco will definitely try to gain some of the time back lost in the time - trial, while Abal will try to defend his yellow jersey, in front of Taaramae and Serpa, who also performed in the first stage
At the top of the first climb, Moschella and Laverde Velez were leading the race but the pack wasn't too far behind them
They managed to make it into the day's breakaway though. 7 other riders joined them: Herve, Pineau, Bol, Caruso, Grau, Piamonte and Shpilevski
Jetse Bol won the only intermediate sprint of the day, defeating Piamonte and Shpilevski, but it probably won't have any impact on the GC or the points classification
The escapes reached the first slopes of the last climb, with 23 kilometers to go, having an advantage of four minutes and a half over the pack, where Santander didn't make a great job
But when the climb started, Ikea and Pirelli took over the lead of the pack and with 15 kilometers left the escapes barely had 3 minutes left from their advantage and the new pace gave Eltink no chance to come back in the pack after crashing a few kilometers before
With 13 kilometers from the finish line, Moschella got away from the other escapes and the only one that was able to follow him was Laverde Velez, who also climbed with him on the first ascent of the day
But when the steepest sections of the climb came, Moschella cracked and he lost the contact with the Benfica rider
Behind them, the big moves have a already started, with most of the favorites forcing the pace in the pack, while Serpa had already joined the other escapes
Serpa was looking really strong on the first half of the climb and with 10 kilometers left of it, he was already in the lead of the race, after catching Laverde Velez as well and leaving him behind
Meanwhile the other favorites had also joined what was left from the breakaway group. Ricco, Taaramae, Perez Sanchez, Alarcon, Cataldo, Nocentini, Ortega, Schwab, Moreno and Peterson where there, but the yellow jersey was still in the pack, protected by some of his Santander team - mates
In the next kilometers the chasers spread into many different groups and even though Taaramae had Alarcon with him in the first chasing group, he wasn't be able to gain any time on Serpa
The Estonian even lost time and the Pirelli rider entered the final 5 kilometers with a gap of 1 minute over his main chasers
Ricco, Alarcon and Taaramae were in that group. But the Estonian kid wasn't looking too good and that might be a reason why they constantly lost time in rapport with Serpa.
At the 5 kilometers banner, Cataldo was only 20 seconds behind the group and he looked like having a good chance to catch the three chasers
He made it with 2 kilometers later, but only the Ikea rider were there as Ricco was gone to try catching Serpa on his own
The final kilometers of the climb were like a carousel, alternating the very steep portions with flat ones. That was clearly in Ricco's advantage who was reducing the gap to Serpa
He came quite close to the Colombian at the 1 kilometer banner but it looked like being too late for him even though the final meters could prove to be quite hard for Serpa
But the Pirelli rider kept his pace and he wins the second stage taking over the general classification lead as well
Ricco came 24 seconds behind him, but with the bonifications and the gaps from the gaps from the first stage, he should almost 1 minute behind Serpa in the GC
Alarcon finished third, 1 minute and a half behind the winner. Taaramae was fourth at 1'42, while Cataldo lost 1 minute and 50 seconds
Perez Sanchez was sixth at the top, 2 minutes and a half lost to Serpa though
Schwab and Moreno came at 3'05. Peterson and Ortega came at 3'20 to take the last spots in the top of the stage. Last year's overall winner, Nocentini was also in that group
David Abal almost looked like he didn't wanted to keep the yellow jersey and did nothing on the last climb. He lost more than minutes to Serpa and his hopes for the overall are definitely now after a great first stage
