Second day of competition in the Vuelta a España and the first stage in the line after the time trial The first stage.
The cyclists left Cascais heading to Ourém and had 194 kilometres to cover with a mountain road and two category 4 climbs. The final climb, the Alto da Batalha, was just 20 kilometres from the finish and was expected to be decisive in deciding the stage.
Spanish duo on the run
It was a pair of Spanish cyclists who made the first escape of this edition of the Vuelta a España.
Ibon Ruiz (Equipo Kern Farma) and Luis Angel Mate (Euscaltil-Euskadi), King of the Mountain and winner of the Stage 4 of the Tour of PortugalIt was the cyclists who formed the day’s escape that reached an advantage of close to five minutes.
The peloton followed quietly and the stage was completed at a very low average. 50 kilometers before the finish the escapees were caught and the race continued to the finish line.
The compact peloton competes on stage.
Despite the fourth category climb approaching the finish line, there were no attacks and, thanks to the high pace in the peloton, it was decided that the race would be a sprint in a compact peloton.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin – Deceuninck) was the strongest in the first bunch sprint and won the second stage of the Vuelta a España. Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was second and Corbin Strong (Israel – Premier Tech) was third.
With this result, Van Aert was rewarded and became the new leader of the Vuelta, overtaking the winner of Yesterday’s stageBrandon McNulty.
Almeida and Oliveira rise overall
Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) have reached a good position in the peloton and both have moved up two places overall, with the Portuguese riders now in the top ten.
Rui Costa (EF Education First-Easy Post) reached the later group, 1’45 behind the stage winner.
Top 10 Stages
| position | The cyclist | a team | time |
| 1 | Groves Caden | The pool – Disonink | 5:12:55 |
| 2 | Van Aert Wout | Timvisma | Bike Rental | ,, |
| 3 | Corbin the Strong | Israel – Premier Tech | ,, |
| 4 | mikel bao | Kern Pharma Team | ,, |
| 5 | Van Etvelt Lenert | lotto destiny | ,, |
| 6 | Bitner Pavel | dsm-firm PostNL team | ,, |
| 7 | aperaster john | Oscaltil – Oskadi | ,, |
| 8 | Vlasov Alexander | Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe | ,, |
| 9 | Rivera Brandon Smith | Ineos Grenadiers | ,, |
| 10 | Baroncini Filippo | UAE Team Emirates | ,, |
Top 10 Overall Ranking
| position | The cyclist | a team | time |
| 1 | Van Aert Wout | Timvisma | Bike Rental | 5:25:27 |
| 2 | Mcnulty Brandon | UAE Team Emirates | 0:03 |
| 3 | Vasik Matthias | Lidl – Journey | 0:05 |
| 4 | Kong Stefan | Groupama – FDJ | 0:09 |
| 5 | Aveny Eduardo | Timvisma | Bike Rental | 0:11 |
| 6 | Roglic Primoz | Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe | 0:20 |
| 7 | Armeril Bruno | Decathlon AG2R Team La Mondial | 0:21 |
| 8 | Almeida Joao | UAE Team Emirates | 0:22 |
| 9 | Oliveira Nelson | Movistar Team | 0:23 |
| 10 | Leibowitz Florian | Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe | 0:24 |
Profile Stage 3
