Sergio Henao and Richie Porte stayed alert in a tricky stage two finale to retain their top 10 positions at Vuelta al País Vasco yesterday.

The Team Sky pair safely held on to their overnight foothold of sixth and eighth overall respectively after finishing amongst a reduced bunch sprint.

After being kept safe all stage by their teammates it was Henao who looked to ignite the finale after jumping on the short-lived attack of world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC) on the rather tricky final descent.

Once again Vasil Kiryienka and Xabier Zandio formed a strong presence on the final climb with Porte safely in tow to put the team in a good position as the race heads into much tougher and much more decisive terrain from Wednesday.

After the finish Sky sports director, Nicolas Portal, was happy to see the team complete the stage without drama heading into the crucial phases of the race.

“It was a good day,” admitted the Frenchman on the Sky website, “not too hard and all the team were able to sit behind GreenEDGE to make sure everything was okay. The plan was to not use too much energy and certainly don’t lose any time on the stage today. We made sure that Richie and Sergio were at the front ahead of the final descent in case there were any splits and groups.”

Speaking of today’s summit finish, Portal explained, “The last climb will be a key part of the stage with the summit finish. We go up the same mountain twice but each time it’s from a different direction. The final climb is around 7 km long. The first four are between 8-9 % average then there are three kilometres which are almost flat before a final 400 metres which are 21% - super steep and narrow.”

Starting at 14.45 you can follow the action from Vuelta al País Vasco live here on Cyclingquotes.com