Nairo Quintana made an early statement at the Vuelta a España with a powerful ride to win Stage 2 in Calpe as Ireland’s Nicolas Roche took the overall leader’s jersey.
A select group of riders including Rigoberto Urán (EF Pro Cycling) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) attacked 20km from the finish of the 199.6km stage in the town on Spain’s Mediterranean coast and the Movistar Team’s Colombian climber, who won the Vuelta’s general classification in 2016, was able to prevail.
The previous race leader, Miguel Ángel López of the Astana Pro Team, who had won Saturday’s team time-trial opening stage, gave chase but the front group, which also included Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-SCOTT) and Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) proved too strong to be caught.
Quintana then distanced his stage rivals to win by five seconds from a charging Roche of Team Sunweb, who took the red leader’s jersey by two seconds on a count-back of bonus seconds. Roglic was third.
Roche and Team Sunweb will attempt to defend the red jersey on Monday’s Stage 3, a 188km trip from Ibi to Alicante, with two category-three climbs along the route.
