Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) made it two from two at the Tour of the Alps, producing another fast final dash to win stage 2 and increase his overall lead.
After sprinting clear at the top of the opening stage's steep final climb, on Tuesday he came over a pair of late climbs in a nine-man lead group and zipped away on a technical run-in to a finish by the athletics track in Ritten.
Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) was the only rider able to hold Geoghegan Hart's wheel through the tight bends that led to the track, but was unable to come around in the final straight and settled for second place. Haig's teammate Santiago Buitrago took the final podium spot at two seconds, having been the rider to shred the lead group to nine on the final climb.
With 10 more bonus seconds for his second stage win, Geoghegan Hart now leads the race overall by 22 seconds from Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), with another Ineos rider, Pavel Sivakov, third at 28 seconds.
Stage 2 took the riders steadily up the Brenner Pass mid-way through the 165.2km route, but the action would boil down to the category-3 Barbiano climb and the category-2 Monte di Mezzo, followed by a dip downhill and that entrance to the athletics stadium on a concrete track.
Geoghegan Hart did not look happy about that finish, shaking his head as he crossed the line instead of celebrating, before appearing to suggest he and others were risking their chances at the Giro d'Italia. On the penultimate bend, AG2R's Felix Gall, third on the opening stage, had crashed and slipped out right next to him. Geoghegan Hart opened the taps and took high speed through the final right-hand bend, but stayed upright and made no mistake.
The British rider paid tribute to his team, who once again dominated the stage, with Thymen Arensman working on the penultimate climb, Laurens De Plus working on the final climb, and then Pavel Sivakov working to keep attacks from the likes of Buitrago and Alexander Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost) under control.
Along with Geoghegan Hart, Sivakov, Haig, Buitrago, Cepeda, Carthy, and Gall, the other members of the lead group that formed over the final climb were Ivan Sosa (Movistar) and Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa). Bora-Hansgrohe's duo of Alexandr Vlasov and Lennard Kamna notably missed out, while Gall's late crash meant he slipped back to the same group that finished 29 seconds down and that including Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).
"You have to recognise Pavel in that final, he made it very easy, he kept the race together. Without his strength and experience it would have been much harder to keep that group together," Geoghegan Hart said.
"I only had to do about 70 metres in the end because I couldn't pedal after the sprint anyway."
How it Unfolded
The stage set out from Alpbach and took the riders over the Brenner Pass before another finish that was more about punchy climbing than the longer mountains to come, although there were still nearly 3000 metres of elevation across the 165.2km.
With an early sharp climb, it was an aggressive start and it took a while for a breakaway to form. Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) was the first to go clear alongside Moren Vermueluen of the Austrian national team. They built a lead of over a minute but would later have company as a wave of attacks led to the formation of a three-man chase group: Sergio Samitier (Movistar), Sebastian Schonberger (Austria), and Juaristi Txomin (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
With 68km ridden, that trio made the junction up front to make it five riders at the head of the race as they ground their way up the gentler side of the Brenner Pass. At the summit, with 81km ridden and 84km to go, the gap stood at two minutes but it extended to three minutes on the long, near-30km, downhill section.
There was then a warm-up for the finale in the form of an uncategorised climb at Feldthurns, where Carr showed his strength, dropping everyone but Samitier. Schonberger scrambled and managed to rejoin on the descent but Vermeulen and Txomin were gone for good.
The Barbiano climb - 4.5km at 8% - was the day's first categorised climb, and Carr inflicted even more damage, first dropping Schonberger then kicking again to get rid of Samitier. He reached the top of the climb alone out front with 14km remaining and a lead of 1:25 over a peloton being driven by Ineos Grenadiers' Thymen Arensman.
Carr continued his effort onto the Monte di Mezzo - 3.9km at 8.5% - but it wasn't too be, as he was wound in by a reduced peloton of 40 riders with 7.5km remaining. By then, De Plus had taken the reins of Ineos' mountain train, with Sivakov, Thomas and Geoghegan Hart in the wheels. That continued until 500 metres from the top of the climb, when Buitrago burst clear and led over the top, shattering the reduced bunch.
Sivakov paced Geoghegan Hart back on the plateau over the top, with 3.5km to go, as the elite group of nine prepared to dip down and contest the finish. The road started to drag back uphill with 1km to go, where Cepeda launched an attack. Buitrago went after it and Geoghegan Hart left Sivakov to follow the wheels, but there was a lull and things came back together, with Sivakov returning to the front and taking them towards the running track, where Geoghgean Hart once again showed the fastest legs despite the chaotic finish.
Results
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