After a weary and crash-marred debut day, Colombia-Coldeportes enjoyed a far quieter stage on Thursday February 19th in Vuelta a Andalucia-Ruta del Sol stage 2, but not without trying to shake things up in the final part of a 192 km effort between Utrera and Lucena.

In sunny southern Spain,  Carlos Julian Quintero launched a strong solo attack just after the only categorize climb of the day, with 6 km to go. The Colombian rouleur tried to take by surprise the peloton led by Movistar and Tinkoff-Saxo, managing to hold on a small gap on the bunch until little before the 4 km banner.

The day’s success was contested on the 400 mt. slightly uphill final drag, where Juan Josè Lobato (Movistar) took a clear win ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Grega Bole (CCC). Miguel Angel Rubiano, 17th, was the best Colombia-Coldeportes rider on the day, while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) easily defended his overall leader’s jersey.

Previously, the stage had been characterized by a 5-man move – Dougall (MTN), Honkisz (CCC), Komin (Rusvelo), Lang (IAM) and Van Ginneken (Roompot) – constantly controlled by the bunch and eventually reeled in with 20 km to go.

“Today gave us the chance to recover from yesterday’s efforts and wounds but we still wanted to try something with Quintero in the finale, even though we knew it was always going to be tough to take off. Carlos is in very good shape, and we expect another strong display from him in tomorrow’s mountain stage," Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli explained.

Among the four athletes who crashed yesterday, only Alex Cano is still suffering from the consequences of the tumble: “Unfortunately, he is still suffering from back pain, and could not have a good night of rest. He is biting the bullet though, and we hope tomorrow he can feel better and be in the mix.”

Waiting for the Vuelta a Andalucia’s peloton tomorrow – Friday – is the first mountain stage: Motril-Alto de Hazas Llanas(158 km), with an uphill finish calling for Cano, Rodolfo Torres and also Edward Diaz, still the best Colombian in the GC, 1.35 behind Contador.

In Italy, at Trofeo Laigueglia, Jonathan Paredes celebrated his season debut with a 150 km breakaway along with three more riders, Gaffurini (Mgk Vis), Brogi (D’Amico) and Cousin (Europcar), reeled in by the bunch in the final 30 km. Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) raised his arms in the final sprint ahead of Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) and Alexey Tsasevich (Katusha).