A sprint in the rain gave UAE Team Emirates’ Antonio Morgado his second victory as a pro.
After the success obtained last Sunday in the Giro di Romagna, the Portuguese cyclist won stage 2 of the Vuelta Asturias, preceding Albert Torres (Movistar) and teammate Isaac Del Toro, who continues his leadership in the general classification.
The race, which started from Ribeira de Arriba and rolled for 200 km to Ribadesella on a course with one 2nd category climb and five 3rd category hills, the last one at 40 km to go, was controlled perfectly by UAE Team Emirates, that gave freedom to a five-rider breakaway, before neutralizing that action at -20 km.
The solo attempt by Samuel Fernandez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), was neutralised by the Emirati team, and set up the final sprint in which Antonio Morgado prevailed thanks to a powerful acceleration.
This is the 28th victory of the season for UAE Team Emirates, and tomorrow they will try to defend the leader’s jersey of Isaac Del Toro in the final stage at Benia de Onis-Oviedo (140 km): the main opponent will be Josè Manuel Diaz (Burgos-BH), who is 3rd at 1’09”, while in second place there is Del Toro’s mate Rafal Majka.
Commenting on his win, Morgado said, “The race was long and the day cold and with a lot of rain. The team trusted me, and all my mates did a great performance in trying to give me the opportunity to win, so I tried to sprint exploiting a super good lead-out.”
