Team Colombia-Coldeportes has promised to race its Vuelta a Espana on the attack, and started fulfilling the promise since its first chance, stage 2, from Alhaurin de la Torre to the uphill finish in Caminito del Rey.

Walter Pedraza was among the protagonists of the day, promoting the first breakaway of the Vuelta a Espana and passing first atop the first categorized climb of the race, but on the finishing line it was Esteban Chaves who lit up the enthusiasm of the Colombian fans.

The former Colombia-Coldeportes rider, now at Orica-GreenEDGE, managed to beat Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) with an impressive show of strenght in the final kilometres, outdistancing in the finale Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), third, and Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who eventually finished fourth behind Daniel Martin (Cannondale-Garmin). Chaves took over not only the leader’s jersey, but all of the others from the special classifications. One of those, though, will be on Walter Pedraza’s shoulders tomorrow.

Indeed, the 33-year-old from Soacha passed first atop the first categorized climb of this Vuelta, the Alto de Ardales (Cat. 3), and is tied in points with Chaves, so he will be sporting the white and blue best climber’s jersey tomorrow at the start.

The six attackers of the day - Pedraza, Davide Villella (Cannondale-Garmin), Jose Gonçalves (Caja Rural), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida) and Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) – got clear early in the stage, but their advantage always stack around three minutes, due to the consistent chase of the Movistar Team.

The breakaway worked together until 30 km to go, when Gonçalves attacked his companions, while a terrific mass crash in the peloton forced David Tanner (IAM) and Przemyslav Niemec (Lampre-Merida) to call it quits on their Vuelta a Espana. Everything came back together by the final climb, where Esteban Chaves stole the show.

Rodolfo Torres, 41° at 2.10, was the best Team Colombia-Coldeportes rider on the day, followed by Miguel Angel Rubiano a few seconds later.

“It was not the display we were hoping for, even though our main goal is to get a stage win, and we have nineteen more opportunity to try to achieve it. Luckily, no one got involved in the crash, and that’s always a big relief,” General Manager Claudio Corti stated. 

"Walter Pedraza deserves praise for getting in a breakaway today, as it was not easy to. Tomorrow he will be wearing the best climber’s jersey on behalf of Chaves, hopefully tomorrow night we might have it by our own right,” Corti added.

"Finally, I feel really happy for Esteban Chaves, a guy we have established a great relationship with in our years together, and managed to bounce back from a serious injury in a magnificent way. It was great for our whole team to see him smiling in the red jersey.”

Tomorrow, Monday, the 3rd stage - Mijas-Malaga, 158,4 km – will feature the first Cat. 1 climb of the race, Puerto de Leon, with about 80 km to go. The best climber’s jersey will be up for grabs again, while the finish might favor those sprinters who will manage to see through the 16 km climb at a 5,2% average gradient.