Vuelta a España organisers have bowed to rider and team pressure and agreed to extend the ‘neutralised’ GC section of the stage 2 final to nine kilometres from the finish.
Riders like Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) had protested vigorously about race conditions after the stage 1 TTT which was partly held in torrential rain and encroaching darkness, and saw numerous crashes.
The heavy rains continued on Sunday morning, on a stage set to finish on a hilly, technical circuit in Barcelona’s Montjuic Park with a steep category 3 ascent to Montjuic castle followed by a rapid descent and gently rising final kilometre.
Organisers initially agreed to take GC times at the summit of Montjuic Castle, some four kilometres from the line, something which riders like Evenepoel argued at the stage 2 start “made no sense”. Evenepoel also said he went along with Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard’s call or an unofficial truce of the stage for GC riders from around nine kilometres to go.
The Vuelta organisation then confirmed that they would, in fact, take the GC times at nine kilometres from the finish, according to a statement released via Wattsapp “in accordance with the weather protocol”.
However, the time bonuses for the first riders to reach the category 3 climb summit and the race finish, remained in place. An ongoing debate as to whether they would finally be applied looked unlikely to be settled quickly.
In the meantime, the intensely rainy conditions at the start of stage 2 – which saw the first part of the stage shortened by a couple of kilometres because of standing water – have finally eased.
The final 100 kilometres looking set to end in much drier weather, albeit with intermittent showers, although images of standing water in the last kilometre of the stage at Montjuic were still being published on X, formerly known as Twitter, just a few hours before the finish. There were also unconfirmed reports that tacks had been thrown on the course with around 100 kilometres to go, causing several riders to puncture.
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