2nd stage is the hilly stage of the tour (I might have said it was the TT in the previous race report - but I was wrong), meaning that the likes of Frank Schleck, Sanchez Gonzales and Sanchez Gil are the favourites along with Cobo, Kessler, Boogerd.
It took a while for the tv-break to get settled, but in the end, it was Sestili, Brandt and Clayes who got away. Sestili was dropped on the very first climb they passed, and never made it back up. Brandt and Clayes worked well together, though, and still had a reasonable gap with 50 km to go. But then, the favourites started attacking - Savoldelli was the first. He was followed by Samoilev, Kroon, Leipheimer and Pasamontes. They immediately got up to Sestili, passed him and started chasing the front group. Behind them, another group had formed consisting of Parra Pinto, Lövkvist, Niemiec, Rogers, Anza and temporarily Sestili.
With 30 km to go, the front group was caught, and the two favourite groups merged into one. They had a gap of 1'15 to the peloton which was led by Accumalux. But with 12 working riders in the front group it could become a difficult task to catch them again.
The pace was high, and especially Savoldelli seemed pressured - even more than Clayes who had been in a break all day. Anza, on the other hand, just pushed the pace more and more, and he managed to get away with 20 km to go. At the same time, Savoldelli and Clayes were dropped, and the peloton were now 2 minutes behind.
With 10 km to go, Savoldelli and Clayes were caught, but the 9-man-group ahead of them still had 1 minute. And Anza? Still going strong, 1'50 ahead of the peloton. Shortly after this, at the foot of the last climb towards the finish, Parra Pinto decided to attack, and was countered by everyone in the group. It seemed only to have one effect: The peloton getting closer. And Anza still being dominant. With 1 km to go, he had 53 seconds to the group behind him, and he seemed sure of winning.
And so he did! A fantastic solo victory for Anza of the Sony Ericsson team. Meanwhile, the riders behind were caught by a sprinting peloton, led by Frank Schleck and Sanchez Gonzales. These two riders took 2-3 with Lövkvist fourth, c. 50 seconds behind Anza.
