Tour Down Under (st. 2)

Spanish youngster from Movistar Team shines into escape towards Angaston, climbs onto 10th overall through bonus seconds. Sütterlin 15th at eventful sprint as Mas, Prades are held up by late crash.

The scorching hot 2019 Tour Down Under -40ºC registered on Wednesday- continued with a second stage shortened due to extreme weather (just 122km from Norwood to Angaston), where the men’s Movistar Team’s youngest member, Jaime Castrillo, played again, just like in 2018, a starring role as part of the day’s break.

The 22-year-old from Jaca, near the Pyrenées in the Aragón region, got himself into the first of two relevante moves today, joining Zakharov (AST) and Lea (AUS) into a three-man attempt which Jaime took advantage from to gain bonus seconds that put him into 10th provisional in the GC. Caught with about 50km from the end, Castrillo had no troubles to stay inside the main field, including his six Movistar Team mates.

? That was HECTIC ? @PaddyBevin took full advantage of a huge crash in the last KM to take a fabulous win on Novatech Stage 2 ahead some of the world's best sprinters!! Chapeau ?? #TourDownUnder pic.twitter.com/7ZBCuJIwOu

— Santos Tour Down Under ??‍♀️ (@tourdownunder) January 16, 2019

The uphill kick to the line saw New Zealander Patrick Bevin (CPT) upsetting the top sprinters, following a crash with 400m remaining which left only twenty riders in contention. While Jasha Sütterlin (15th) was able to get through before the incident, Lluís Mas was boxed in against the barriers while trying to avoid the crash, fortunately not falling down. Edu Prades was also held up while riding through the side opposite to his team-mate, and couldn’t go for the sprint either.

The Tour Down Under will travel to Uraidle on Thursday (146km), with a very challenging circuit featuring no less than five significant slopes at each of its six laps, for a combined 3,300 metres of elevation gain.