The 2nd stage of the Vuelta a Espana had taken a good turn for Lampre-Merida, thanks to the presence of Nelson Oliveira in the main breakaway of the race.

The Portuguese rider escaped from the bunch after 20 km in the race with other 5 athletes and his break had a maximum advantage of 3’30”.

At 28 km to go, the gap to the peloton was 2 minutes when suddenly most of the riders of the bunch crashed heavily. Many riders were on the ground and among them there was  Lampre-Merida captain Przemyslaw Niemiec.

The Polish climber, who had already been victim of a crash on August 12 after being hit by a car while training, hit the head and, although he gave quite good feedbacks to the medical team that assisted him, he was taken to Malaga hospital for medical checks that showed, as explained by Dr. De Grandi, team doctor of the Lampre-MERIDA, "a strong head injury, for which it was agreed with the management of the health facility to leave the rider under observation in the hospital to make a new CT scan after 12 hours."

The breakaway was neutralized in the run-in to the final short but demanding climb to the finish on which Chaves delivered an amazing performance, which gave him the stage victory and the red jersey as leader of the overall classification.

For Lampre-Merida, the best result was obtained by Mattia Cattaneo, 53rd at 3’18”.