Sam Bennett had to settle for 3rd place today on stage 2 of Vuelta a Burgos in Spain when Fernando Gaviria kicked clear in the sprint finish and held on for victory.
Meanwhile, Eddie Dunbar has moved into the lead in the young rider's classification and he remains 12th overall some 10 seconds on yesterday's stage 1 winner Felix Großschartner (Bora-hansgrohe).
After the day's early breakaway was brought back and the finale was marred by a number of crashes, the 168km stage from Castrojeriz to Villadiego ended in a bunch sprint.
Groupama-FDJ was leading out Arnaud Demare but when his last lead-out man pulled over on a sweeping bend just before the finish, Gaviria kicked while the riders were still on the corner.
The UAE Team Emirates rider got a small gap and though Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Demare did their best to close him down, the Colombian was far too strong.
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He has recovered from a dose of Covid19 back in February and came back strong today to win despite three of his team mates being pulled out of the race before today's stage 2 over fears they had been in contact with a person who has tested positive for the infection.
Because today's stage came down to as print there was no significant changes in the overall, though the top 10-15 was slightly reshuffled based purely on stage placings.
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Großschartner leads overall by eight seconds from a group of 33 riders after small splits credited down the top of the field on the opening stage were reviewed and nullified.
Dunbar, who was 12th on the opening stage and he remains in 12th overall after today's race, with three stages remaining.
João Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step) was 2nd on the opening stage and so took the young riders' classification jersey. However, Dunbar has taken that from him today because of stage placings; the Irishman 38th today and Almeida back in 67th.
The racing heads for the climbs tomorrow with a testing summit finish at Picon Blanco, where Dunbar and his Team Ineos squad will hope to dominate on the 7.8km incline with an average gradient of 9.3 per cent.
Dunbar, still only aged 23 years and in his 6th season riding in the pro peloton, is in the same line-up this week as Giro d'Italia champion Richard Carapaz and Ivan Sosa, the 22-year-old Colombian who won this race overall last year and in 2018.
@FndoGaviria ganador etapa 2 #vueltaburgos @PATODIAZGUEVARA @pamozaec @XavierOZevallos @Modo_Ciclismo @AstudilloAv pic.twitter.com/w11KFRJtuj
— Vladimir Ushiña (@VFUE20) July 29, 2020
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