OFFICIAL Stage 2 Results: Guillaume Martin ABANDONS!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Vuelta a España Gamers!
STAGE Grade: B
I rate today’s stage a B. The final climb was never both steep and long. The long part wasn’t steep and the steep part wasn’t long. That did turn the stage into a surprise: I had not expected a sprint finish for the general classification riders. But overall, this was a mediocre day of racing.
Route: 2/5 GC: 3/5 Tactics: 2/5 Sprint: 3/5 Surprises: 2/5
The breakaway consisted of four riders, with about 120 kilometers to go. Three young riders, Gal Glivar (23), Liam Slock (24), and Sinuhé Fernández (25). And the slightly more experienced Jakub Otruba (27).
Glivar’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team car came up to him and the team boss was seen talking to him for a long time. The Belgian commentators speculated that, because of his youth, it had to be explained to him.
That he was in the breakaway as a teammate of the red jersey wearer, Jasper Philipsen. That that means that Alpecin-Deceuninck doesn’t have to lead the peloton. Because it’s an unwritten rule in cycling that the leader’s team does all the work. But it’s also unwritten that you don’t chase your teammate. The team boss explained.
That Q36.5 was doing all the work instead. They wanted to keep the breakaway in sight for a possible Tom Pidcock stage win. That Q36.5 was going to keep the gap at 90 seconds, no matter what the breakaway did. The team boss explained.
That the breakaway therefore should not ride too hard. Cycling isn’t about going fast. It’s about going as slow as possible. The team boss explained.
That, in fact, Glivar shouldn’t do much work at all. That the leader’s teammate in the breakaway also has the reasonable excuse that he doesn’t have to work in the breakaway. The team boss explained.
After all that, Glivar went to tell his breakaway partners about the plan.
That amused the Belgian commentators. But, as one of them pointed out, these riders are “from countries that don’t eat and drink cycling as much as we here in Belgium.” That’s true. Most Belgians don’t need to be explained how a breakaway like this works. But a 23-year-old Slovenian, a Czech, and even a young Spaniard, that’s different.
My point is twofold: most outsiders, which is almost everyone in this country, don’t understand the nuances of a cycling race. And that there’s the gap between the casual followers of cycling here, and the hardcore enthusiasts in Belgium.
That point was illustrated by José de Cauwer and Renaat Schotte themselves, when the peloton passed through Cuneo. “Cuneo!” they said, and went on in Italian: “Un uomo solo al comando, la sua maglia è biancoceleste: il suo nome è Fausto Coppi.”
They left it at that. Because everyone watching understood. No need to translate, and certainly no need to explain the reference. If you’re watching cycling on Belgian TV, you know this quote.
“Il suo nome è Fausto Coppi.” His name is Fausto Coppi.
We last talked about Coppi after stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia this year. He and Gino Bartali were suspended after the 1948 World Championship for sabotaging each other’s race. It follows, then, that in the 1949 Giro d’Italia, they were still rivals.
The 1949 Giro is described in novelist Dino Buzzati’s astonishing book The Giro d’Italia. Stage 17 of the Giro went from Cuneo to Pinerolo, 254 kilometers long and across five hard climbs in the French-Italian alps. Coppi was in second place at the beginning of the stage, but not at the end of it.
On the first climb Coppi attacked. And then he rode solo, 192 kilometers, to win the 1949 Giro d’Italia. Behind him, only Bartali could follow. Bartali himself rode solo, and finished eight minutes ahead of Alfredo Martini in third. Bartali’s ride would have been one of the most epic in cycling history.
Except that twelve minutes ahead of him, Coppi had already finished. It was an astounding moment in cycling history. Surpassed by, perhaps nobody, ever. And immortalized by the words of the Italian radio commentator Mario Ferretti. Those were his words, above.
“There’s a man alone ahead. His jersey is white and blue. His name is Fausto Coppi.”
Out of that single moment plays, exhibitions, concerts, films, photographs, monuments, plaques, street signs, museums, archives and books have been created. In Belgium, and presumably in Italy, all you have to say is “un uomo solo al comando” and people will know it: his name is Fausto Coppi.
That is what defines our beautiful sport of cycling. That we can ride a legendary stage, and go back to another stage 80 years ago. What Coppi did back then, Tadej Pogačar is doing today. There will always be another legend to follow.
And his name is Jonas Vingegaard. He was his own legend today: after crashing, coming back and winning the stage as if nothing happened. Cycling is a team sport: I don’t know how long it would have taken Vingegaard to come back to the peloton on his own, but we don’t have to know. Victor Campenaerts did that job for him. And when they reached the peloton, Campenaerts went back to the team car for gels and water, gave all of it to Vingegaard, and continued his job of bringing Vingegaard all the way to the front of the peloton.
Cycling is a team sport.
I’ve never had to describe a forty-rider bunch sprint taking place on a 10% gradient, it’s a skill I’ve never needed and don’t have. All I can say is that Giulio Ciccone attacked and I thought he had done enough. An Italian winning a Vuelta stage in Italy, why not. But Vingegaard came back and his bike throw (!) was a bit better, he won by two inches.
At my desk I was screaming “I have no idea who won, I have no idea who won.” But for the riders, an inch or two is the same as eleven minutes. Vingegaard cheered, Ciccone cried. There is crying in cycling.
Team Chuck were the only team to select Alex Zingle. In 2023, Zingle was racing for Cofidis in the Tour de France. In the bunch sprint finish of stage 4, Rasmus Tiller was leading out for Alexander Kristoff. Job done, Tiller moved over to the right, unaware that Zingle was there. They crashed.
That’s the only time I have noticed Zingle in a race. He finished 142th in the general classification that year. Maybe Team Chuck remembered that stage, maybe Zingle was one of the last riders on the entry form. Regardless, when I saw that name, I was hoping we would have an opportunity to highlight him.
Little did I know.
Today he went down very hard in the crash in the wet that also took Jonas Vingegaard. Vingegaard got back on his bike, but Tingle had dislocated his shoulder. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t know how to put his arm back in place, so the medics helped him. Before he got back on his bike, he decided to grab a gel from his back pocket. The result? He dislocated his shoulder again.
This time the medics decided to take him into the ambulance. On TV it looked like he was going to abandon. But a few minutes later he reappeared, seemingly in good shape. But he couldn’t continue the race: in the time he had been inside the ambulance, a spectator had stolen his bike.
I am not making this up. You can look it back on YouTube: you’ll see him on a spare bike, without a start number. I wondered why he needed a spare bike because the crash didn’t seem hard enough to break his regular bike. But that explains it.
Two broken shoulders, a stolen bike, and still he finished the stage. He was 24 minutes back, fortunately well inside the time limit of 47 minutes.
Without his crash, he could well have been in a breakaway in stage 3 on Monday. But now we’ll have to see if he even starts the stage. He was optimistic, but who knows how many more bikes get stolen or shoulders dislocated.
Watch the final kilometer HERE.
Watch the official La Vuelta highlights HERE.
Watch the extended NBC Sports highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Guillaume Martin's abandon hurts Team Amalia; they were the only team who had selected him. Well, some adults had him, including myself. Martin's the kind of rider I pick on my team because I like him. The rest of the Vuelta will be a little more boring now.
We always have this back-and-forth between sprint stages and GC stages. Some teams bank on the sprints, others don’t. We have a lot less of that this year! Nobody seems to bank on the sprints. This will be an interesting game, more drawn out and possibly less surprising. But also, probably closer than in the past.
Case in point: all twelve teams scored what I would call big points. Nobody missed the boat. Just 13 points between first and fourth, and the rest not far behind.
And different winners for the different categories. In first place today, and now tied for second overall, were Team Ansel. They had most points from the stage as well. Just a single point behind were Team Hugo, who scored most points from classifications. They remain in fourth. Third place today were Team Grace, they move into sixth overall. And Team Amalia were fourth, with most riders in the Top-25 (fourteen), and they’re now seventh.
Team Charles finished fifth and they move from second to first; yesterday they were tied with Team Dominic, who finished sixth today and they are still tied for second, but now with Team Ansel.
Team Josh were seventh, they drop to eighth. Team Tadej eighth, they remain ninth. Team Samuel dropped from first to fifth after finishing ninth today. And Team Will were tenth, they remain eleventh.
In eleventh today were Team Sylvia, and they’re still twelfth. And twelfth today were Team Sam, who dropped to tenth overall.
On Monday we’ll race a one-day-classic kind of stage. There’s a category 2 climb about halfway through, and it’s technically a summit finish with a category 4 climb. It’s possible that the likes of Jasper Philipsen can hang on, but I don’t think it’s very likely. This should be more like Mads Pedersen’s terrain, or perhaps Tom Pidcock. A breakaway is also possible. Alex Zingle has a chance, according to the experts. But I say, Pedersen will win stage 3.
Standings after stage 2:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Charles* |
394 |
2 |
1 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
387 |
4 |
2 |
|
Team Dominic* |
387 |
2 |
0 |
|
|
4 |
Team Hugo* |
386 |
4 |
0 |
|
5 |
Team Samuel* |
383 |
1 |
-4 |
|
6 |
Team Grace* |
379 |
8 |
2 |
|
7 |
Team Amalia* |
362 |
10 |
3 |
|
8 |
Team Josh* |
342 |
4 |
-4 |
|
9 |
Team Tadej* |
321 |
9 |
0 |
|
10 |
Team Sam* |
257 |
4 |
-6 |
|
11 |
Team Will* |
252 |
11 |
0 |
|
12 |
Team Sylvia* |
204 |
12 |
0 |
Standings after stage 2 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Feng |
416 |
6 |
5 |
|
2 |
Team Charles* |
394 |
4 |
2 |
|
3 |
Team Adam |
391 |
22 |
19 |
|
Team Kari |
391 |
9 |
6 |
|
|
5 |
Team Corsa |
390 |
9 |
4 |
|
6 |
Team Ansel* |
387 |
9 |
3 |
|
Team Dominic* |
387 |
4 |
-2 |
|
|
8 |
Team Hugo* |
386 |
9 |
1 |
|
9 |
Team Samuel* |
383 |
1 |
-8 |
|
10 |
Team Grace* |
379 |
20 |
10 |
|
11 |
Team Craig |
369 |
9 |
-2 |
|
12 |
Team Kent |
364 |
9 |
-3 |
|
13 |
Team Amalia* |
362 |
22 |
9 |
|
14 |
Team Mitchinson |
352 |
9 |
-5 |
|
15 |
Team Chuck |
350 |
8 |
-7 |
|
16 |
Team Josh* |
342 |
9 |
-7 |
|
17 |
Team John |
340 |
2 |
-15 |
|
18 |
Team Wes |
338 |
7 |
-11 |
|
19 |
Team Laurens |
330 |
24 |
5 |
|
Team Rob |
330 |
24 |
5 |
|
|
21 |
Team Amelia |
326 |
24 |
3 |
|
22 |
Team Tadej* |
321 |
21 |
-1 |
|
23 |
Team Julie |
314 |
3 |
-20 |
|
24 |
Team Jonwaine |
310 |
9 |
-15 |
|
25 |
Team Corey |
309 |
29 |
4 |
|
26 |
Team Joe |
304 |
24 |
-2 |
|
27 |
Team JB |
268 |
28 |
1 |
|
28 |
Team Sam* |
257 |
9 |
-19 |
|
29 |
Team Doug |
256 |
9 |
-20 |
|
30 |
Team Will* |
252 |
29 |
-1 |
|
31 |
Team Sylvia* |
204 |
33 |
2 |
|
32 |
Team Liz |
192 |
32 |
0 |
|
33 |
Team Kate |
97 |
29 |
-4 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 2:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
RED JERSEY |
GREEN JERSEY |
POLKA DOT JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
228 |
46 |
11 |
9 |
1 |
67 |
295 |
67 |
362 |
|
Team Ansel* |
238 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
70 |
308 |
79 |
387 |
|
Team Charles* |
217 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
6 |
68 |
285 |
109 |
394 |
|
Team Dominic* |
214 |
40 |
10 |
8 |
6 |
64 |
278 |
109 |
387 |
|
Team Grace* |
232 |
45 |
11 |
9 |
5 |
70 |
302 |
77 |
379 |
|
Team Hugo* |
230 |
52 |
11 |
9 |
5 |
77 |
307 |
79 |
386 |
|
Team Josh* |
196 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
5 |
67 |
263 |
79 |
342 |
|
Team Sam* |
137 |
23 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
41 |
178 |
79 |
257 |
|
Team Samuel* |
184 |
33 |
13 |
6 |
0 |
52 |
236 |
147 |
383 |
|
Team Sylvia* |
161 |
28 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
43 |
204 |
0 |
204 |
|
Team Tadej* |
195 |
31 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
57 |
252 |
69 |
321 |
|
Team Will* |
187 |
35 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
48 |
235 |
17 |
252 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 2 (including adults):
|
248 |
50 |
11 |
9 |
6 |
76 |
324 |
67 |
391 |
|
|
Team Amalia* |
228 |
46 |
11 |
9 |
1 |
67 |
295 |
67 |
362 |
|
Team Amelia |
204 |
33 |
10 |
8 |
9 |
60 |
264 |
62 |
326 |
|
Team Ansel* |
238 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
70 |
308 |
79 |
387 |
|
Team Charles* |
217 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
6 |
68 |
285 |
109 |
394 |
|
Team Chuck |
204 |
43 |
9 |
6 |
6 |
64 |
268 |
82 |
350 |
|
Team Corey |
228 |
46 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
64 |
292 |
17 |
309 |
|
Team Corsa |
239 |
47 |
11 |
9 |
5 |
72 |
311 |
79 |
390 |
|
Team Craig |
218 |
46 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
72 |
290 |
79 |
369 |
|
Team Dominic* |
214 |
40 |
10 |
8 |
6 |
64 |
278 |
109 |
387 |
|
Team Doug |
135 |
29 |
8 |
5 |
0 |
42 |
177 |
79 |
256 |
|
Team Feng |
247 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
70 |
317 |
99 |
416 |
|
Team Grace* |
232 |
45 |
11 |
9 |
5 |
70 |
302 |
77 |
379 |
|
Team Hugo* |
230 |
52 |
11 |
9 |
5 |
77 |
307 |
79 |
386 |
|
Team JB |
173 |
36 |
5 |
8 |
0 |
49 |
222 |
46 |
268 |
|
Team Joe |
189 |
33 |
11 |
9 |
0 |
53 |
242 |
62 |
304 |
|
Team John |
161 |
30 |
12 |
5 |
5 |
52 |
213 |
127 |
340 |
|
Team Josh* |
196 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
5 |
67 |
263 |
79 |
342 |
|
Team Julie |
163 |
20 |
12 |
5 |
4 |
41 |
204 |
110 |
314 |
|
Team Kari |
242 |
44 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
70 |
312 |
79 |
391 |
|
Team Kate |
65 |
15 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
15 |
80 |
17 |
97 |
|
Team Kent |
219 |
40 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
66 |
285 |
79 |
364 |
|
Team Laurens |
211 |
33 |
10 |
8 |
6 |
57 |
268 |
62 |
330 |
|
Team Liz |
146 |
20 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
33 |
179 |
13 |
192 |
|
Team Mitchinson |
211 |
39 |
10 |
8 |
5 |
62 |
273 |
79 |
352 |
|
Team Rob |
210 |
33 |
10 |
8 |
7 |
58 |
268 |
62 |
330 |
|
Team Sam* |
137 |
23 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
41 |
178 |
79 |
257 |
|
Team Samuel* |
184 |
33 |
13 |
6 |
0 |
52 |
236 |
147 |
383 |
|
Team Sylvia* |
161 |
28 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
43 |
204 |
0 |
204 |
|
Team Tadej* |
195 |
31 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
57 |
252 |
69 |
321 |
|
Team Wes |
189 |
39 |
10 |
8 |
5 |
62 |
251 |
87 |
338 |
|
Team Will* |
187 |
35 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
48 |
235 |
17 |
252 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
178 |
35 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
53 |
231 |
79 |
310 |
-Laurens.