Belarusian hands rare defeat to Mark Cavendish on hot and hilly race to the sea
Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ) won the second stage of the Vuelta a España between Alcalá de Guadaira and Marbella in a bunch sprint. The Belarusian outsprinted current race leader Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) in a rare defeat for the Manx Missile, with Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) taking third at the end of a the tough 173.7km stage.
“If I can win once then I can do it more times and I hope to get another victory,” said Hutarovich after the stage. “We’ve only had two days of racing.
“It may seem like a bit of a surprise because it’s only my third Grand Tour,” continued the former Belarusian champion, “but I came for a win and I’ve achieved it.
“I live for the sprints,” he added, “I like sprints that are a little bit wild, with curves and braking at the end. I don’t think I need anything to be with the great sprinters, only a name; that’s earned based on wins and I’m getting them.”
After the late start and finish of lastnight’s team time trial, stage 2 was deliberately a relatively short route to Spain’s southern coast. The stage contained just one categorised climb, but the middle 100km of the stage crossed the rolling Sierra de Cádiz and Serrania de Ronda, meaning that the route was far from easy.
The breakaway of the day happened almost immediately as Javier Ramirez (Andalcia-Cajasur), Mickaël Buffaz (Cofidis), Johnnie Walker (Footon-Servetto) and Mickael Delage (OmegaPharma-Lotto) got away at the 4km mark.
The foursome’s lead reached 6’45” by the 24km point, before Cavendish’s HTC-Columbia team came forward to peg it back. The advantage dropped to around 5 minutes as the leaders passed through Morón de la Frontera after 44km, where the stage’s hilly section began.
On the tough, hilly roads Cavendish’s team allowed the gap to reopen to 7’08” at the 58km mark.
As the four riders approached the 3rd category Alto de Pruna after 74km, disaster struck: Buffaz crashed and was forced to withdraw from the race with a broken collarbone.
The other three riders carried on with Ramirez taking the maximum points over the top of the climb, and the first polka-dot mountains jersey of the race.
As the trio entered the province of Cádiz with 90km to go, its advantage had dropped to 6’02”.
Soon afterwards Delage also crashed but remounted and managed to rejoin the others. Meanwhile a crash involving Lars Bak and Martin Velits (both HTC-Columbia) at the front of the peloton briefly affected the chase, but the gap continued to fall steadily. With 66km to go the three’s advantage was down to 3’23”.
As the breakaway trio crossed the line for the second intermediate sprint with 61km to go, Delage attacked and tried to go alone. With 55km to go he led the other two by 22 seconds and the peloton by 3’10”; he continued to open his lead over Ramirez and Walker, and with Cavendish reportedly suffering in the peloton the gap opened up to over 4 minutes once more.
The Frenchman faded though, and was reeled in by Ramirez and a clearly unimpressed Walker soon afterwards.
With less than 40km to go Marcos Garcia (Xacobeo-Galicia) attacked from the peloton and managed to join the breakaway trio just before the long descent to the finish began.
Garcia immediately went to the front of the group and took command, but with 35km to go the lead over the HTC-Columbia led peloton was just 55 seconds.
As the breakaway approached the final 30km Walker escaped his three companions on the descent. The Australian managed to get a few seconds clear, but the peloton was steadily approaching; with 25km to go he had a lead of just 34 seconds, with HTC-Columbia determined to deliver Cavendish to the line.
At 13km to the finish, with just a few kilometres of descent remaining before the flat coastal run in to the finish line in Marbella, Ramirez joined Walker just as Garcia and Delage were caught by the peloton. It was only delaying the inevitable though, and the peloton was complete with just over 10km to go.
After working to hold, then bring back, the breakaway group, HTC-Columbia found itself joined at the front of the peloton by the Milram and Quick Step teams. With no team willing, or possibly able, to take overall control on the fast roads of the Mediterranean resort city, the Liquigas-Doimo and Lampre-Farnese Vini teams also moved forward to briefly take their turns at the front.
With 3km to go Liquigas-Doimo suddenly took control with three riders on the front working for Daniele Bennati. The green team still led with 2km to go, but were then overtaken by the blue and white Milram team on behalf of Robert Förster.
Under the flamme rouge marking the last kilometre Lampre-Farnese Vini brought Alessandro Petacchi forward, who was sitting on the wheel of Farrar. The American was the first to launch his sprint and Cavendish came around him, but Hutarovich was even faster and he managed to hold off the Manxman right to the line.
Cavendish was awarded 12 bonus seconds for his second place and so keeps hold of his lead in the overall classification. The rest of the top six is still dominated by the Manxman’s HTC-Columbia teammates, with Farrar rising to seventh with his 8 bonus seconds for third place.
Result stage 2
1. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ
2. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Columbia
3. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
4. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Transitions
5. Manuel Cardoso (Por) Footon-Servetto
6. Koldo Fernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
7. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky
8. Robert Förster (Ger) Team Milram
9. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Team Katusha
10. Andreas Stauff (Ger) Quick Step
Standings after stage 2
1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Columbia
2. Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Blr) HTC-Columbia @ 12s
3. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia
4. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Columbia
5. Matthew Goss (Aus) HTC-Columbia
6. Hayden Roulston (NZl) HTC-Columbia
7. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 21s
8. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 22s
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
10. Frederik Willems (Bel) Liquigas-Doimo