Cycling: Local hero Ben King (Cannondale) won stage two of this year's Tour of California. After a long flight, the 27-year-old prevailed against his compatriot Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) and also took the lead in the overall classification with the win. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the peloton's sprint for third place.
Four riders had broken away from the field during the stage from South Pasadena to Santa Clarita, including the two eventual leaders King and Huffman. During the difficult stage over almost 150km and more than 3.000 meters in altitude, the top quartet became a duo at the end, which harmonized excellently and, to the surprise of everyone, was able to save the lead to the finish. Especially in the last 10km the pressure of the field was enormous, but King and Huffman did a self-sacrificing job. "All my results in my career have come from similar breakaways where the group has been underestimated a bit [...] It's great to be able to wear the yellow jersey now," said the stage winner.
Jens Voigt looks back on the second stage
Like yesterday, John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) showed a very good performance and even made it into the sprint of the peloton. Even if it wasn't quite enough for a top placement, a 15th place should be more than satisfactory after a break of several months due to injury. A real test awaits Degenkolb and all the other drivers tomorrow: The enormously steep final ascent to the finish line will push many to their limits and could already result in a preliminary decision in the overall standings.
Final Result Tour of California Stage #2
Tour Locations | Driver | Country | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | BenKing | USA | Cannondale Pro Cycling | 03:52:09 |
2 | Evan Huffman | USA | Rally cycling | |
3 | alexander kristoff | NOR | Team Katusha | 00:00:08 |
4 | Peter Sagan | SVK | Tinkoff | |
5 | Niccolo Bonifazio | ITA | Trek-Segafredo | |
6 | Danny Van Poppel | NED | TeamSky | |
7 | Patrick Bevin | NZI | Cannondale | |
8 | Nathan Hass | AUS | Dimension Data | |
9 | Bryan coquard | FRA | Direct Energie | |
10 | Marco Canola | ITA | United health |
Leave a Comment