After a resounding opening stage victory yesterday, Pavel Bittner continued his strong start to the Vuelta a Burgos with a ninth place uphill sprint finish on stage 2 racing in the leader’s jersey. On countback, Bittner unfortunately dropped down one spot on GC to second, but moved into the white jersey of best young rider held today by teammate Max Poole.
The stage saw an early breakaway of four riders move clear whilst behind, the team set about controlling the race in defence of the leader’s jersey. Despite ending in a second sprint in as many days, the stage was by no means flat and control as a team was super important to stay in position and maintain pace.
The catch was timed to perfection, inside the final 10 kilometres from which point it was all attention on positioning for the uphill drag to the line. Bittner was dropped off in a decent position but ended up slightly boxed in as the drag unfolded, eventually finishing ninth.
After the stage, Bittner commented: “We had a tricky day ahead of us because we were not sure if we wanted to go full in the front but in the end we decided to just go for it. It was an amazing job by Enzo, Chris, Tim, Julius and all the guys to keep the breakaway close and made it nice for me today. The team spirit was super high today so that was a highlight of the day. Coming into the final Martijn placed me well and then Max heading into the climb. I felt really good but was just boxed in a bit. I tried to open up but had to brake a few times – it’s a bit unfortunate but we still have the white jersey and Max is in a good position so we have a good launch pad for the coming days.”
