• Quintana. "I think I had never won like this"
  • Classification: This is the general of the Tour
  • Tour: All stages of the Tour of Spain 2019

There is not a day of peace in La Vuelta , either because the heat strikes, either because the tour does not invite it, or because there are too many people in the squad wanting to war. There is the Jumbo, for example, the Jumbo-Visma of Primoz Roglic , who after the fall in the initial time trial takes two days suddenly appearing on the head of the squad to harden by the rhythm. And it is not known if it is to mark ground as the strongest block (a priori) of the race or by pure rebellion after the Torrevieja accident.

The case is that the squad arrives in Alicante drowned, although on the paper this second stage was one of the friendliest of the 21 that La Vuelta has. An opportunity for sprinters, which Sam Bennett takes advantage of with remarkable ease , confirmed his excellent fitness, already exhibited in the recent BinckBank Tour with three partial victories. And he does it because his main rival, Fernando Gaviria, badly chokes the port of Tibi , 40 kilometers away, and is no longer able to recover lost time.

Angel Madrazo, the Sparrow of Cazoña , the man of the Burgos-BH who has set out to wear the blue polka dot jersey in these early stages, went through this ascent . He escaped on Sunday, he did it again this Monday with his partner Diego Rubio and Héctor Sáez, from Euskadi-Murias . And when he reaches the top, dying, noticing the platoon on the back of his neck, he lifts his foot and ends the day with the feeling of a job well done.

That is when the teams take stock of damages and look for those affected by the port of 6.7 kilometers at 4% on average. Fabio Jakobsen, the sprinter of the Deceuninck, has stayed , but gives him time to react. And when he arrives and both the Belgian team and the Bora realize that Gaviria has given up a good handful of seconds, they put a very hard pace, while the Colombian and his gregarious UAE make an effort as demanding as it is unsuccessful to rejoin the platoon.

Gaviria's mission fails, the Deceuninck and the Bora raise their feet. That is when the Jumbo comes forward, with Tony Martin raising the pace , perhaps by pure masochism, leading the squad towards Alicante. The arrival is launched by Walscheid's Sunweb, but Bennett takes advantage of it, which completes Bora's full on the big laps, with sprint victories with three different riders: Ackermann (Spin), Sagan (Tour) and now the Irish.

Bennett prevails ahead of Theuns, Mezgec and the amazing Jon Aberasturi , who finishes fourth. After them, all the favorites and also Nicolas Roche, who will be the leader for at least one more day and that will surely be two, because on Tuesday he expects another stage for sprinters, perhaps the last one within 10 days.

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