Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) won again at O Gran Camiño, dominating stage two after another excellent lead-out and another power sprint on the rising finish.
The Dane won stage 1 and repeated his effort with ease, this time winning by several bike lengths.
Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) came through late to take the close fight for second place, with Carlos Canal (Movistar) third.
Cort won wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey and extended his lead thanks to another ten-second stage winner’s time bonus. He leads Marcellusi by 14 seconds, with Canal third at 16 seconds.
Stage 2 is a 15.6km time trial from Ourense to Pereiro de Aguiar.
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Cort had time to look back and push his sunglasses up his nose before celebrating his victory alone and then with his Uno-X Mobility teammates.
“It’s great to win again. It doesn’t happen often to win on consecutive days and in the leader’s jersey,” Cort said.
“The team did a super, super job all day and then they brought me back on after the climb and set me up perfectly for the finish.
“I knew the finish was perfect for me because a lot of fast guys had been dropped. This finish was maybe even better than yesterday’s stage because only half the bunch survived.”
Cort promised he would try to defend the yellow jersey in the time trial.
His biggest threat could be Canada’s Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), who went on the attack on the climb and is only 20 seconds down on Cort in the overall classification.
How it unfolded
Following the opening stage in northern Portugal, the 133.2km stage 2 from
Marín to A Estrada took the race into Spain’s spectacular and hilly Galicia region packed with gorges, rivers and country roads.
The early break of the day included Rémi Daumas (Groupama-FDJ), Ander Okamika (Burgos Burpullet BH) and Alvara Sagrado (Illes Balears Arabay). They opened a three-minute lead on the rolling roads but the peloton and especially Uno-X Mobility led the chase all day, determined to control the race.
The trio were only caught with 20km to go but Uno-X Mobility’s work was far from done. The Alto de San Vicenzo climb offered a chance for the overall contenders to attack with 14km to go and Gee made a huge effort on the hardest part of the 2.5km climb.
Gee’s repeated surges split the peloton and hurt everyone. He eventually got away with Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal QuickStep), Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda (Movistar), Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta) and Cort’s teammate Andreas Kron.
They opened a ten-second gap but Uno-X Mobility were chasing behind, with Kron sitting on as a deterrent. The catch came with six kilometres to go but the rolling roads continued and 19-year-old Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ) tried a solo move. He got away and got a gap but Uno-X Mobility kept him in sight and he was swept up with a kilometre to go. A reduced sprint was assured.
The road rose into the centre of A Estrada and Cort made sure he was on the front with leadout man Kron before the decisive right turn.
Iván Cobo (Equipo Kern Pharma) hit out first, as Cort looked back and was distracted for a second. However, when he opened up his sprint, the Dane surged away and won by several bike lengths.
Results
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