Mar 21, 2023 at 5:19 PMUpdate: 10 minutes ago
Giulio Ciccone won the second stage of the Tour of Catalonia on Tuesday. After an exciting ride, the Italian settled with Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel in an uphill sprint.
Ciccone remained in the absolute final of a long final climb together with Roglic and Evenepoel. The 28-year-old Trek-Segafredo rider kept the two favorites for the overall victory well behind him and recorded his second victory of the year. He previously won a stage in the Tour of Valencia.
Roglic remains in the lead in the general classification. The leader of Jumbo-Visma is six seconds ahead of both number two Evenepoel and number three Ciccone.
Roglic won the first battle with Evenepoel on Monday. The Slovenian won the opening stage and was ahead of his Belgian competitor in the final sprint.
Another mountain stage is scheduled for Wednesday in the Tour of Catalonia. Then the finish is on a first category climb to the ski resort of La Molina. The Spanish WorldTour race lasts until Sunday.
Esteban Chaves attacked on the final climb. Photo: Getty Images
Chaves caught in the final kilometre
The second stage took the peloton over 165.4 kilometers from Mataró to Vallter. Along the way, the riders faced a third category climb and a first category climb, after which the finish was on a hors category climb.
In the opening phase, a leading group of eight riders formed, including the Italian Simone Petilli, the Dane Christopher Juul-Jensen and the Briton Simon Carr. The escapees drove ahead for a long time and started the final climb with a lead of just under two minutes.
On the 15.1-kilometer climb with an average gradient of 6.7 percent, the difference quickly narrowed and the leading group split up. Carr attacked alone, but was caught as the last escapee at 6.5 kilometers from the finish by the group of favorites led by Wout Poels. Richard Carapaz and Egan Bernal had already been released from there.
Immediately after Carr was caught, Chaves attacked and only Jumbo-Visma rider Sepp Kuss reacted. The Colombian had a half minute lead in no time, while Kuss was unable to close the gap.
Only 2 kilometers from the finish the other favorites came into action and Chaves’ lead quickly shrunk after Evenepoel accelerated. The brave Colombian was caught at 500 meters, after which Evenepoel attacked again. Only Roglic and Ciccone could follow and the Italian stayed ahead of the two top favorites in the sprint.
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