Britain’s Mark Cavendish retained the leader’s red jersey after the second stage of the Vuelta a Espana despite being pipped in a sprint finish by Yauheni Hutarovich of Belarus on Sunday.
Hutarovich, of the Francaise des Jeux team, pulled off a surprise victory over the British sprint king at the end of the 173.7km course from Alcala de Guadaira to Marbella in southern Spain.
Third was American Tyler Farrar, ahead of Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi.
PHOTO: REUTERS
It was the first stage win in any of the three Grands Tours for the 26-year-old Hutarovich.
“It might seem like a surprise, but it wasn’t, it’s my fifth victory this season,” said the Belarusian, who turned professional in 2007. “I came with the intention of winning a stage, I’ve therefore achieved that.”
However, he admitted that: “When I saw that I had won, I couldn’t believe it, but I saw Cavendish, the leader, had some problems and I knew I had a chance.”
Spain’s three-time World Road Race champion Oscar Freire said he was “surprised” by Hutarovich’s win.
“I don’t know him, I have never heard his name, but we’ll have to watch him, as he has just beaten one of the best current sprinters, Cavendish,” Freire said.
The Briton, making his Vuelta a Espana debut, holds a 12-second lead in the overall standings over a group of five riders — Kanstantsin Sivtov of Belarus, Peter Velits of Slovakia, American Tejay Van Garderen, Australian Matthew Goss and New Zealand’s Hayden Roulston.
The 25-year-old Isle of Man rider on Saturday powered his HTC Columbia team to victory in the opening stage, a 13km team time-trial held at night under floodlights in the southern city of Seville.
He already has a remarkable string of stage wins in major stage-races that includes 15 victories in the Tour de France over the past three years.
Sunday’s stage was marked by an early breakaway by four riders — Spain’s Javier Ramirez, Australia’s Johnnie Walker and Frenchmen Mickael Buffaz and Mickael Delage.
Buffaz was forced to withdraw after breaking his collarbone in a crash after about 73km.
The leading trio was joined by Spain’s Marcos Garcia Fernandez, but they were caught by the peloton with about 12km to go in the final downhill run to the finish.
Yesterday’s stage took the riders 156km from Marbella to Malaga, and includes a first category climb.
The event has been left wide open by the absence of three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain, who skipped his home Tour — which he won in 2008 — after a hard-fought victory in France last month, and last year’s winner Alejandro Valverde, who is serving a suspension for doping.
Top contenders now include 35-year-old Russian Denis Menchov, a two-time Vuelta a Espana winner, the Schleck brothers of Luxembourg, Andy and Frank, and the 2008 Tour de France winner, Carlos Sastre of Spain.
The 21-stage 65th edition of the Vuelta a Espana, in which 198 riders from 22 teams are competing, ends in Madrid on Sept. 19.
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