Stage two is the calm before the storm really with one fairly flat stage into Bangoles with one early climb to get our first King of the Mountains.
Quite a few high quality sprinters here including Ivano Lo Cicero Matthew Goss Michael Van Stayen Dan Holloway Óscar Avelino Kobe Vanoverschelde Matt Rowe
and Allan Davis
who are listed as the favoured fast men for today.
As ever there is a high degree of early activity with three riders duelling it out for the first sprint.
Arthur Vichot
takes the sprint ahead of Jelle Wallays
and Tim Kennaugh
These three are joined by Kenny De Haes Rudi Van Houts Johann Tschopp Jurgen Van Goolen
and Matej Mugerli
a short while after the sprint.
With another five attacking out of the peloton to join them in a 13 man breakaway.
The riders here are: Staf Scheirlinckx Bas Giling Viktor Renäng Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy
and George Atkins
Three of the break are from the wild card teams of Pokerstars and Hollister, two of the stronger teams in the CTour they have their best stage racers here and it should be interesting to see how Rujano and Kiserlowski goes. The Hollister rider will get the King of the Mountains jersey as Staf Scheirlinckx
takes the first place on the climb.
Arthur Vichot
is second with Matej Mugerli
third.
It is a rainy day in Spain today and whilst we do not have lots of climbs the roads are treacherous enough to cause some issues in the pack. A really nasty spill for Bernhard Kohl
causes him to think about abandoning but he decides to carry on.
The Austrian champion did not get anyone else come from the pack to support which is interesting, perhaps as a new guy the team have more faith in Walter Pedraza
is also here. Nethertheless Kohl makes it back in the back as Santander are not yet in full chase mode.
More issues with the terrain as some riders become detached from the pack and feeling they are unimportant to the team they decide to take it easy for the day.
This seems rather wasteful for some of the riders in the picture here are good climbers who could have scored their teams useful points.
Jocelin Maillet Paolo Scarponi
are two of the better climbers of this naughty group of riders who will surely get a tongue lashing come the stage end.
Another rider decides to detach himself from the peloton, but this was in a good way as Marcus Burghardt
attacks.
The German will be looking forward to the cobbled classics which start with the Omloop Het Volk very soon. He had a tremendous season in 2010 but was more frustrated last year by the likes of Alessandro Ballan. He is testing his legs here and whilst he is not able to eek out much of a gap from the now chasing bunch he does pass a faller from the break.
Jurgen Van Goolen
is that faller.
The break had passed the 50km to go point with a gap of just 3 minutes, with Santander doing the majority of the chasing. They are sufficiently clear enough to take the day's second sprint prime with Kenny De Haes
just edging out Staf Scheirlinckx
and Tim Kennaugh
Santander having done virtually all of the chasing have handed over chasing duty to the garish looking Webeffect team mixing with the more eye friendly Wikipedia mob.
With the pace high and the rain still lashing down we get another crash, a more major one this time and it is heart in the mouth time as it is nasty some riders are hurt.
Terrible news for Team Nestle as Stefan Denifl
has to abandon. This coupled with Maillet taking it easy some way behind really makes this an awful day so far for the team.
Others taking their time to get back on their bikes and into the race include: Martin Hacecký Chris Barton Rafael Valls
and Sylwester Szmyd
Up front this might just delay the chase for the breakaway who are boosted with the arrival of Marcus Burghardt
However the German does not really get to the front and a determined chase behind see's Webeffect make the catch in the last 10km.
The team in pink start to orginise their sprint train inside the last 5 kilometers with Lluis Mas, Rikki Nelson and Oscar Avelino
making up their sprint train.
Behind we see the disaster hit Nestle team with a long train of sprinters behind: Hugues Mottin, Ivano Lo Cicero Matthew Goss Allan Davis Matt Rowe Cameron Meyer Kobe Vanoverschelde Yauheni Hutarovich
and Pedro Merino Criado
in the frame for the sprint finish.
Things seem to alter though as a panicky Santander bring race leader Justo Tenorio
to the front.
Nestle also are doing a decent job of challenging the Webeffect train and it is difficult to be convinced with Nelson as a lead out man. The understanding between him and Avelino seems to be breaking down as Mottin leads Lo Cicero around a left hander.
John Degenkolb
has made a late bid to get amongst the sprinters here. He drags Mauro Richeze
into to contention. Behind the following sprinters Goss, Davis, Meyer etc. get tailled off leaving it seemingly down to just six riders with 2km to go.
Matt Goss works hard here to try and get himself back into contention with two of his countryman Davis and Meyer on his wheel he seems to be leading them out.
We get some issues with lapped riders but once we are through the traffic its clear that Goss and Davis are right there with Avelino into the last kilometre.
The clever and full of confidence Davis romps through the inside track Goss is squeezed and looking a bit leggy following. Nobody else can quite live with the Australians pace.
Avelino is holding strong for third, Lo Cicero, Degenkolb and Richeze are nowhere as Dan Holloway
comes through late.
No-one can stop Allan Davis taking another win this time at Protour level, what a start to the season.
Goss is second with Avelino third. None of these riders were close enough Tenorio to take the race lead off of him so Santander have control going into the lumpy stuff. They will be concerned about one of their lead domestiques Valls getting delayed in a crash he managed to distance his other crash collegues but still lost over 4 minutes.
