00:01After Jasper Philipsen sprinted to a commanding win in yesterday's opener,
00:06it's time for the GC favourites to enter the fray on stage two,
00:09with a summit finish to Limone Piemonte.
00:12Jonas Vingegaard has made no secrets of the fact that he's here to win La Vuelta,
00:16but will the down be targeting red this early in the race?
00:20For sure it will be an important stage for the GC.
00:24It's an uphill finish and we have to be ready for the race.
00:28On one hand it would be nice to get into the red jersey already,
00:32but you don't win the race today, so it's better to have the red jersey later on.
00:39UAE have the collective firepower to match Visma Lisa bike,
00:43but there are question marks surrounding the form of their co-leader Joao Almeida,
00:47who crashed out of the Tour de France after a superb spring.
00:51Of course recovering from a problem is never easy,
00:56especially the preparation was nothing special,
00:59so at least last year I still had no setbacks,
01:03still a good preparation, but I think it's okay,
01:06I think I'll be fine.
01:07Yeah, let's go day by day and see how it goes.
01:10The Italians will also be looking to impress on home soil
01:13before the race returns to Spain,
01:15with the informed Giulio Ciccone and Antonio Tiberi among today's contenders.
01:20This is a really special thing, special moment, racing Vuelta here in Italy
01:25is something really different and I'm really enjoying it.
01:34Well stage two takes us from Matteo Sobrero's hometown of Alba to Limone Piemonte,
01:399.8 kilometres at 5.1%.
01:42It isn't the hardest climb of the race by any means,
01:45but some steep pinches in the last few kilometres will open up the gaps.
01:49Either way it should be too hard for Philipson,
01:52so we're going to have a new leader by the end of the day.
01:55Like yesterday, we've got immediate reaction with a couple of teams
02:04wanting to try and get themselves into the breakaway of the day.
02:12Well that breakaway of the day formed quickly,
02:14with the GC teams happy to keep their powder dry for the final.
02:18Four men went up the road,
02:20Liam Schlock of Lotto,
02:22Gal Glivar from Alpecin de Koenig,
02:24Nico Denz of Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe,
02:27a three-time stage winner in Italy at the Giro d'Italia,
02:30and Jakob Atrouba from Caio Rural.
02:33Burgos though were unhappy about missing the move
02:35and they made several attempts to counter.
02:37Sinue Fernandez finally got the green light from the peloton
02:41and set about chasing down the break.
02:44Meanwhile, Denz had decided this one wasn't for him and sat up.
02:50Fernandez soon caught up to make it four at the front again,
02:55the breakaway holding a gap of around two minutes
02:58and clipping along at 46 kilometres an hour
03:01with Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 team
03:04assuming the pacing duties in the peloton.
03:08No real change in the race situation
03:10as they approach the final 100 kilometres.
03:13Next up was the intermediate sprint in Busca,
03:22where Schlock took the maximum haul ahead of Atrouba.
03:29There were still ten points up for grabs for the peloton
03:32and Ethan Vernon pounced to take them.
03:34The man who is currently in the white jersey,
03:37closing to within ten points of Philipson
03:39at the top of the green jersey standings.
03:45Well, the weather then took a turn for the worse
03:47with the rain starting to fall and the roads becoming slippery,
03:50so extra vigilance required in the peloton and up at the front.
03:54With 46k to go, Atrouba attacked in the breakaway,
03:59with Gleivar and Schlock quickly on the wheel,
04:01Fernandez though was dropped after his earlier efforts.
04:05The leading trio still had around two minutes in hand,
04:09but the peloton were starting to slip through the gears,
04:12all strung out behind Q36.5,
04:15and things almost went very wrong for the overall favourite.
04:20Oh, crash there by several riders on the roundabout.
04:23They've slid out all of the riders there.
04:25Vingegaard's down.
04:27Well, Vingegaard was straight back on his bike,
04:29but his teammate Axel Zinglay needed medical attention.
04:32Still, it could have been a lot worse for Visma Lisa bike.
04:36Thumbs up, he's fine.
04:39Well, Pidcock was also caught up in that crash,
04:41but the peloton eased off a bit to let everybody catch up again.
04:44The three leaders were now just 10k from the base of the climb.
04:51Well, their advantage was down to just 35 seconds
04:53as they embarked on Limone Piemonte,
04:56the peloton closing fast.
04:59Schlock put in one final dig with 8k to go,
05:01but it wouldn't be long before he was caught as well,
05:04and then it was over to the favourites.
05:08Visma Lisa bike taking control with 3k to go,
05:11so Vingegaard was obviously feeling OK,
05:13but there were still a lot of riders in this group.
05:16It was thinned out somewhat in the final 2k,
05:18as the gradients really began to bite.
05:21Lidltrek now on the front for Ciccone,
05:23with plenty of others in the mix.
05:25It would come down to a bunch sprint for the climbers,
05:28as they hit the final kilometre.
05:30Here comes Poet Pidcock. Pidcock who's trying to go for a stage victory here in La Vuelta.
05:44He's being challenged by Giulio Ciccone.
05:46Pidcock's gonna run out of legs. Ciccone's going.
05:49It's Vingegaard who's coming round the outside.
05:51Vingegaard's the nearest challenger.
05:53Here comes Bernal. Bernal the Colombian champion.
05:56Can he try and get there?
05:57Well this is gonna be a close one on the line.
06:00Vingegaard believes he got there.
06:03Well Vingegaard indeed taking his first win since February,
06:07and you could see what it meant to him.
06:09Since that triumph in the Algarve,
06:11he's finished on 14 stage podiums without tasting victory,
06:14but the draft is finally over.
06:16His third Vuelta stage win and his first red jersey.
06:20To be honest, I mean, you're not gonna let a stage win pass.
06:23So when I saw the opportunity, of course, I'll take it also.
06:27And I'm super happy to take the victory today.
06:31It's been a while since my last victory obviously,
06:34but I'm super happy with how I felt and how the team did today.
06:39So yeah, super happy with also having the red jersey.
06:44Well Vingegaard taking it by a whisker from Ciccone,
06:47with a resurgent David Godu coming third ahead of Egan Bernal.
06:52Vingegaard now leads by four seconds from Ciccone.
06:55Most of the GC favourites are within 12 seconds,
06:58but Guillaume-Martin Guillaume unfortunately abandoned after a crash.
07:03As expected, Philipson lost red,
07:05but he still holds the green jersey as the leader of the points classification
07:08ahead of Vernon and Vingegaard.
07:11Vingegaard also takes top spot in the mountains classification,
07:15having taken five points with his win.
07:18Alessandro Vere will wear the polka dots again tomorrow though,
07:21on his behalf.
07:22And Juan Ayuso, who finished eighth on the stage,
07:25is now the best young rider ahead of Junior Le Serre
07:28and Valentin Paripatra.
07:30Do join us again tomorrow for the last full day in Italy.
07:33It's a punchy stage between San Maurizio Canavese and Ceres.
07:37And thanks for watching.
