Extended Highlights - Stage 2 - La Vuelta 2024

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Discover the Stage 2 highlights

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00:00Brandon McNulty is the first leader of La Vuelta after his superb performance yesterday,
00:16the American storming to his fourth time trial victory of 2024.
00:20He's now determined to help UAE land their third Grand Tour of the season with Almeida
00:25or Yates.
00:26Today, though, is all about the sprinters, who'll be hoping to survive the wind and some
00:34late bumps.
00:35Caden Groves, winner of three stages last year, says it'll be tough.
00:39I think it's going to be a really nervous stage, but I expect to sprint at the finish,
00:43hopefully with a complete peloton and a full team, but it could also go either way.
00:49And with the wind, yeah, I don't know if we can expect echelons, but I expect a really
00:55hard day.
00:56After several near-misses this season, especially at the Tour de France, Wout van Aert has arrived
01:01at his first Vuelta with lofty ambitions.
01:04To be honest, we also want to go for the green jersey in this Vuelta, but that starts with
01:11good results and the main goal is, of course, winning a stage.
01:16Which would mean the red jersey?
01:18Today, yes.
01:19So, yeah, there's a lot of opportunities today and we'll see how the race goes, but for sure
01:25it's a stage where I look forward to.
01:29And Tamás Evwanti were inspired by the performances of Biniem Gemay at this summer's Tour.
01:34Arna Marek is now hoping to emulate the Eritrean in Spain.
01:40Yeah, really a lot, because at the same time we were on altitude camp in Tignes with the
01:44whole team and it inspired us to go a bit harder on the trainings.
01:50Binie won three stages, so it was a big motivation, yeah.
01:55After two stage wins in Burgos, Pavel Bittner is also eyeing up victory, especially after
02:00his fellow Czech, Matias Vacek, was denied yesterday.
02:03Yeah, it was really nice to watch.
02:06I was really cheering for him at the time he was running.
02:09I was already at the massage table relaxing a bit, so it's a pity that he could not do
02:14it, but I hope one of us can do it as well, because that would be really good for the
02:19Czech cycling.
02:24Stage two is 194k between Kaskajs and Úrem, with hilly terrain and two categorised climbs.
02:30The second of them, the Alto de Batalha, tops out with just 19k to go, so it could provide
02:35a springboard for later tacks.
02:37The fast men may not have it all their own way.
02:41The peloton taking things nice and easy at the start, with only two riders going on the
02:47attack, Luis Ángel Maté and Ibon Ruiz from the two wildcard teams, Escotella Scardi and
02:53Kern Farmer.
02:54They built a maximum lead of almost five minutes, but no stress for the sprint teams.
02:59The riders cruising along at under 35km an hour and just making the most of the Portuguese
03:04crowds.
03:06McNulty was looking resplendent in red as UAE continued their domination of this year's
03:11Grand Tours.
03:12Tadej Pogacar wore the pink and yellow jerseys for all but three days at the Giro and the
03:17Tour, so including today, UAE riders have led for 40 days out of 43.
03:24With 100km to go, the gap was down to under three minutes, although the chase hadn't really
03:29started in earnest, with the sprint teams just looking to conserve a bit of energy.
03:36Oh, here we see a crash.
03:38Problem here for one of the riders in sometimes the feed zone.
03:42This is Dylan van Baarle of Vismalisa Bike.
03:47Van Baarle getting to his feet rather gingerly, but the Dutchman was able to keep going.
03:53The peloton now heading through Caldas de Reina, the hometown of João Almeida, one of
03:58the two GC leaders for UAE.
04:02I'm super excited.
04:03It's going to be amazing.
04:05No words, to be honest.
04:07It's going to be maybe one single lifetime, so I'm super happy.
04:12Matei and Ruiz were still leading by over two minutes at this point, though their advantage
04:16began to shrink on the approach to the intermediate sprint.
04:19Meanwhile, van Baarle had apparently done himself more damage than it first seemed in
04:23that crash.
04:26It's a little bit concerning to see.
04:29It's a little bit concerning to see Dylan van Baarle in the way he is and his body language.
04:34Yeah, I'm more concerned about the body language.
04:37This is not really a moment where you want to get dropped and that's never a really good
04:42feeling for a rider.
04:44A great reception here from the Portuguese fans and one more target on today's stage
04:49is ticked off and behind they're going for the green points and it's Caden Groves on
04:55the right hand side in the blue jersey, right down the centre, Wout van Aert in the green.
04:59Also there is Vacek.
05:01It's Caden Groves who takes the 15 points ahead of Wout van Aert.
05:10Matei and Ruiz leading the way through that intermediate sprint with Groves snaffling
05:14the final two bonus seconds.
05:16Van Aert would have to wait for the finish line to try to snatch the red jersey from
05:20McNulty.
05:22It was soon game over for the two escapees who were caught after more than 140km at the
05:27front and sadly van Baarle had to abandon after his crash, a major blow to his teammates
05:33van Aert and Sepp Kuss.
05:38The riders embarking on the 7km climb of the Alto da Batalha and even if it was rather
05:43shallow, Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe decided to up the tempo to try to drop some of the sprinters.
05:49They didn't quite succeed in that but the high pace caused a crash involving the best
05:54young rider Matthias Vacek.
05:56He caught up again after the summit with the peloton all back together.
06:00It was time for the first bunch sprint of this 2024 edition.
06:14There is the leader in the King of the Mountains on that jersey.
06:17There is Stephan Kung trying to move up as is Israel Premier Tech and Edoardo Affini
06:23is leaving this all on the road for Wout van Aert.
06:26Wout van Aert is in a perfect position here.
06:29He is waiting.
06:30Edoardo Affini is doing an incredible job.
06:33How he manages but Wout van Aert is looking back to see that he doesn't get boxed in because
06:37that would be very dangerous.
06:39He's starting to sprint.
06:40And now he starts to open up.
06:42Wout van Aert is holding on to the barriers here.
06:44He's got a big challenge from Caden Groves but this is going to be a throw for the line.
06:49Groves takes his fifth stage victory in La Vuelta a Espana.
06:54Caden Groves picking up exactly where he left off at last year's Vuelta with a sprint victory
06:59and that was actually the last time the Australian took a win.
07:02The 25-year-old ending his 11-month drought by powering to the line ahead of van Aert.
07:07It's his fifth stage victory at La Vuelta.
07:11Yeah, I think it's been a number of reasons.
07:14I had an injury in the spring and missed a lot of racing.
07:17But then I returned to a really good level for the Giro but in the end was not fast enough
07:21to beat Jonathan Milan or Tim Moliere.
07:24And yeah, that kept me really motivated and working hard to come to a race like this
07:29which suits me super well.
07:31Groves taking his 17th career win ahead of van Aert who so far come third and second.
07:36Corbin Strong rounds out the top three.
07:39Van Aert can console himself with the red jersey.
07:42Thanks to bonus seconds he now leads the race from McNulty and Vacek.
07:46Groves is on top in the points classification though by seven points from van Aert
07:50with a mouth-watering battle for green in prospect.
07:54Stephane Kung popped up to take a couple of mountains points late in the day.
07:57That means that he is now the official king of the mountains.
08:00He's level on points with Maté.
08:03And in spite of his late crash today, Vacek remains our best young rider.
08:13Stage three is another opportunity for the sprinters.
08:16Although this being La Vuelta, there is still a fair bit of climbing to be done
08:19between Lusa and Castello Branco.
08:21Join us again tomorrow and thanks for watching.