Stage 2

The road

At the start

The longest day, red on a knife edge

Tadej Pogačar holds red by nine hundredths of a second from Ethan Hayter, with Tarling four back and Van Aert nine. The longest stage of this Vuelta runs west out of Monaco into France, climbs the Alto Châteauneuf-Grasse and the Col de Saint-Andrieu early, then pitches up and down for a hundred kilometres to a narrow, steep drag into Manosque. There are bonus seconds out there for anyone close enough.

How it was won

1. 1184 km to go

   Hayter jumps into the break

   Bouwman and Uriarte go clear before the Alto Châteauneuf-Grasse and Hayter, level on time with the red jersey after Monaco, jumps across to join them; Sinuhé Fernández spends a long solo chase making it four. UAE never let the gap out past 1:45.

2. 250 km to go

   Hayter rides into virtual red

   With the break inside half a minute and the six bonus seconds at Gréoux-les-Bains worth the whole jersey, Hayter goes alone for them and takes the lot. For a few kilometres he is the virtual leader of the Vuelta. Twenty seconds later Van Aert comes out of the bunch to take the four that are left.

3. 32 km to go

   Van Aert attacks with 2km left

   The road tilts up into Manosque and Van Aert goes the instant it does, gapping the entire race except the man in red. Pogačar sits on and refuses to pull, because working here would hand away his own lead, and even Romele bridging across cannot keep the Lidl-Trek train off them.

4. 4At the line

   Brennan wins on debut

   Caught inside the last kilometre, the sprint re-forms around Visma: Laporte hauls Brennan through the narrowing streets and drops him on Fisher-Black's wheel as the New Zealander opens up far too early. Brennan, 21 and riding his first three-week race, comes past him and wins by a street, Pau Miquel second and Pogačar third — while Hayter, gapped at the back, misses out on red for the second day running.

The result