Vuelta a Burgos: Jens Keukeleire wins stage two as Anthony Roux takes overall lead
Belgium's Jens Keukeleire powered to victory on stage two of the Vuelta a Burgos.
Last Updated: 08/08/13 5:17pm
Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE) surged clear of the field in the final 300m of an uphill finish and held on to beat Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) into second and Dario Cataldo (Team Sky) into third.
Roux (FDJ) finished fourth and now heads the general classification by two seconds from previous leader Simone Ponzi (Astana), who was sixth on the day.
The 157km stage took the riders on a rolling route from Roa de Duero to Ciudad Romana de Clunia and saw a six-man breakaway build up an advantage of over three-and-a-half minutes.
The escapees still held 3min 5sec leading into the final 40km, but Cannondale soon stepped up the pace on the front of the peloton and the gap tumbled.
Quintana ignites finale
With 15km to go, Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Luis Mas (Burgos BH - Castilla y Leon) attacked out of the break in a bid to stay away and although they put up a strong fight, they were finally caught with 5.5km to go.
Orica-GreenEDGE then took over at the front of the bunch and led the field on to the uncategorised climb to the finish, but it was Nairo Quintana (Movistar) who ignited a frantic finale with a short-lived burst just over 1km out.
Vini Fantini's Mauro Finetto and Colombia's Robinson Chalapud responded with ill-fated attacks of their own, but Keukeleire continued to bide his time and waited until only five men were left at the head of the race to make his move.
Cataldo gave chase but faded, while Nocentini countered too late to deny Keukeleire an impressive triumph that came just hours it was announced he had signed a new, two-year contract with his Australian team.
Stage two result
1 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-GreenEDGE, 3:37:02
2 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, same time
3 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Team Sky, st
4 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ, st
5 Benoit Vaugrenard (Fra) FDJ, +2sec
6 Simone Ponzi (Ita) Astana, st
7 Sergey Chernetskiy (Rus) Katusha, st
8 Mauro Finetto (Ita) Vini Fantini, st
9 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, st
10 Jeffry Romero (Col) Colombia, st
General classification
1 Anthony Roux (Fra) FDJ, 6:53:36
2 Simone Ponzi (Ita) Astana, +2sec
3 Sergey Chernetskiy (Rus) Katusha, same time
4 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Orica-GreenEDGE, +3sec
5 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Team Sky, st
6 Benoit Vaugrenard (Fra) FDJ, +7
7 Mauro Finetto (Ita) Vini Fantini, st
8 Mikael Cherel (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
9 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +8
10 Jeffry Romero (Col) Colombia, +10
