Second stage of the Basque race is less than 100km long. With 2 categorised hills/climbs it's made for the puncheurs. Taaramae won yesterday's stage and he is in yellow today but it's going to be hard to keep the jersey as a lot of better puncheurs are right behind him and the strong wind could also be his opponent
At the first climb of the day a breakaway wasn't really made yet but we still had 3 riders leading the race: Sohrabi, Saldarriaga and Stybar, with Saldarriaga being the first at the summit after a great fight with Sohrabi
They were later caught by a group that also attacked on the first climb and the new group last untill the only intermediate sprint of the day, which was won by Moreno
Few kilometres after that the first breakaway was made, with 3 pretty good riders in: Samoilev, Nydam and Ponzi
Garate also attacked but he never joined the leading group
Same as yesterday the pack is lead by Nespresso and Kenda. It seems at least strange that we don't see any Ikea rider there, trying to defend Taaramae's jersey
As soon as the pack reached the last climb of the day, the attacks started. First rider to attack was Hermans
Taaramae was right after him even though Hermans isn't a real threat at the moment for his yellow jersey
And they joined the leading group right before the summit
Still one of the escapes was first there, Ponzi taking the points in front of his team - mate, Hermans and Samoilev
On the downhill the group was joined by Veloso, Wegmann and Efimkin, who attacked right at the end of the climb. They entered together the last 10 kilometers of the stage with more than 1 minute advantage over the pack which means that they have a good chance at today's win
Wegmann looked the strongest there and with 7 kilometers to go he attacked
That attack and the wind split the group into a lot of mini groups
That definitly wasn't good for Taaramae who seems to have lost the contact with the Germann rider and Wegmann is only 20 seconds behind him in the overall rankings!
Also Kessler, Sambris, Moreno, Mercado and Calzati are coming really fast from the pack and they almost caught some of the riders that were in the leaidng group a few moments ago
Only Efimkin, Hermans and Veloso were able to keep it up with Wegmann and with 4 kilometers left they are in front
Taaramae and Samoilev are in the second group but they are already 45 seconds behind!
Behind them there was a crash in the pack but the only important rider involved was Peterson
Meanwhile in front, his team - mate, Wegmann is leading the sprint
The others are anything but sprinters and it seems really hard for them to stop the BMC rider
And Wegmann takes the win and most likely the yellow jersey as well
Taaramae and Samoilev were caught by their chasers and the pack, with Moreno crossing the finish line fifth, 1 minutes and 7 seconds behind Wegmann which means that Taaramae lost the yellow jersey
Stage
1
Fabian Wegmann
BMC Racing Team
2h14'17
2
Gustavo Veloso
Team Energie - Diesel
s.t.
3
Aleksandr Efimkin
Kenda Pro Cycling P/B Spinergy
s.t.
4
Ben Hermans
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
5
Daniel Moreno
Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Michelin
+ 1'07
6
Ruslan Sambris
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
7
Matthias Kessler
Nespresso - SportZone
s.t.
8
Jesus Del Nero
Santander
s.t.
9
Juan Miguel Mercado
Team Energie - Diesel
s.t.
10
Scott Nydam
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
11
Rein Taaramäe
Team IKEA - Bianchi
s.t.
12
Branislav Samoilev
Team Energie - Diesel
s.t.
13
Sylvain Calzati
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
14
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
15
Wang-yip Tang
Team Ultra Adventure Pro Cycling - Sponsored by Hello Kitty
