Astana Cycling Team

Stage 2 - Tuesday, March 23: Salt - Banyoles, 182.6 km

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Today’s race was the story of two adventurers, Jonathan Castroviejo and Peter Stetina, versus a dense and mighty pack who tracked them down and set up Mark Cavendish for another sprint win.

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Two twenty-two year-olds, Euskaltel’s Castroviejo and Stetina, an American riding for Garmin, broke away at kilometer 9 and stayed away until kilometer 170. Behind them, it was an uneventful day. HTC-Columbia, Lampre and Milram shared the work of controlling the race until Caisse d’Epargne stepped up to do a turn in the last 10 kilometers.

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Points of interest:

• The stage was ridden in pleasant spring weather.
• Andy Schleck was DNS today.
• The break was caught in the last of three laps of a circuit that occupied the final 50 kilometers of the race, starting at Banyoles.
• The entire peloton minus 8 stragglers finished in the same time as Cavendish.
• Castroviejo won the intermediate sprints and is the new leader of the velocistas.
• Stetina went over the first-category Alt Els Ángels first and is the new leader in the montaña.
• Astana riders fared well and margins are slim between all favorites.

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Results:

Stage 2- top five
1. Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columcia), 4:15:46
2. Juan José Haedo (Team Saxo Bank), s.t.
3. Aitor Galdos (Euskaltel-Euskadi), s.t.
4. Samuel Dumolin (Cofidis), s.t.
5. Michel Kreder (Garmin-Transitions) s.t.

Stage 2 - Astana riders
21. Josep Jufré, s.t.
33. Paolo Tiralongo, s.t.
41. Óscar Pereiro, s.t.
64. Andrey Zeits, s.t.
132. Sergey Renev, s.t.
141. Gorazd Stangelj, s.t.
145. Alexsandr Dyachenko, s.t.
152. Jesús Hernández, s.t.

GC after Stage 2 – top three
1. Paul Voss (Milram), 04:20:43
2. Levi Leipheimer (RS), 00:01
3. Andreas Klöden (RS), 00:02

GC after Stage 2 - Astana riders
25. Óscar Pereiro, 00:1031. Josep Jufré, 00:13
57. Paolo Tiralongo, 00:16
106. Alexsandr Dyachenko, 00:23
118. Sergey Renev, 00:25
146. Andrey Zeits, 00:33
156. Jesús Hernández, 00:39
158. Gorazd Stangelj, 00:39

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Highlights

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