Stage 2

The road

At the start

Flat Dutch roads, and a 69-metre climb

Jumbo-Visma won the team time trial by thirteen seconds and fill the first eight places overall, Robert Gesink in red. Today crosses to Utrecht carrying the first classified climb of this Vuelta: the Amerongse Berg, 2.1 kilometres at 2.4 per cent, topping out 69 metres above the sea. The wind will matter more than the hill. This race is short of pure sprinters, and those here will not get many days.

How it was won

1. 171 km to go

   A pimple worth a jersey

   2.1km at 2.4%, and the first mountains points of the whole Vuelta. Van den Berg attacks before the climb and proves strongest up a relentlessly aggressive little ascent — enough to take the polka dots in the Dutch flatlands.

2. 218 km to go

   Sprint on the airstrip

   The intermediate runs down the old Soesterberg runway and Pedersen takes maximum points ahead of Mullen. It is the last hurdle before the wind-up into Utrecht.

3. 3At the line

   Bennett rescues his season

   A messy, technical run-in of roundabouts and chicanes, Ineos controlling with Van Baarle and Turner. Out of it comes Sam Bennett — left out of two Tours, nearly left out of this Vuelta — sprinting like the rider he used to be.

The result