Cycling: The Spaniard Juan Jose Lobato Del Valle from the ranks of Movistar has won the second, extremely hard-fought stage of the Tour Down Under. After an eventful 150km from Unley to Stirling, Lobato triumphed in a bunch sprint – Simon Geschke was the best German in 13th place, Marcel Kittel was beaten off. Yesterday's winner Bobridge defended his overall lead.
As in yesterday's stage, the 150km to the mountain village of Stirling was dominated by a breakaway group for a long time. Unlike Jack Bobridge's win yesterday, the group of three couldn't stay in the lead for the entire distance. It also took quite a while today because of the numerous smaller and larger climbs until the first groups tried to break away from the field. The Australians Cameron Meyer from OGE and Thomas de Gendt from Belgium were the first to be successful. A short time later they were joined by another Australian, Campbell Flakemore (BMC).
This group of three was able to gain a lead of almost 4 minutes on the peloton. About 25km before the finish, however, the field led by Sky, IAM and UniA managed to catch up with the breakaways. After that, no driver was able to gain a decisive advantage. In the end, the Spaniard Jose Lobato Del Valle triumphed, flying up from behind in the last few meters and crossing the finish line first. He was also able to take the lead in the sprint ranking. No wonder the 26-year-old was satisfied: “I am very happy to start the season like this. Many thanks to my team.”
Yesterday's winner and overall leader Jack Bobridge finished 20th, but was able to defend his jersey. Like yesterday, the best German was Simon Geschke in 13th place, who improved his position to 11th in the overall standings. Marcel Kittel did not have a good day and finished more than 10 minutes behind.
Final result of the 2nd stage:
[easy table th=“0″]1. Juan Jose Lobato (Spa) Movistar Team, 3:42:24,
2.Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica GreenEdge,
3. Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Movistar Team,
4. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin,
5. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team,
6. Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Astana Pro Team,
7. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky,
8. Niccolò Bonifazio (Ita) Lampre-Merida,
9. Nathan Haas (Aus) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team,
10. Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale,
-G-,
13. Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin,
-G-,
114. Roger Kluge (Ger) IAM Cycling, 0:09:59,
-G-,
128. Rudiger Selig (Ger) Team Katusha, 0:13:43,
129. Marcel Kittel (Ger) Team Giant Alpecin
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