For a spell, the Caminito del Rey seemed set to host a statement of authority from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) at this Vuelta a España, but by the summit, the Colombian had been surprisingly usurped by his fellow countryman and eventual stage winner Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).
"I ran out of strength," Quintana admitted simply at the top, after he cracked in the final 1,500 metres having established the select winning move with an attack three kilometres from home. He eventually laboured across the line in 6th place, 26 seconds down on Chaves, though he had the consolation of putting a handful of seconds into his principal rivals for final overall victory.
"I tried because I felt good," Quintana said. "I wanted to have a go, and then after that I wanted to follow but I wasn’t able to. The heat affected me in the final kilometres. But I have to congratulate my fellow countryman. He was very strong and he deserved the win.
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The short climb to the finish of stage two was expected to favour puncheurs such as Quintana’s Movistar stable-mate Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), and there was surprise when the Colombian seized the initiative by surging confidently out of the front group with three kilometres remaining.
Only Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), Nicolas Roche (Sky) and – briefly – Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) were able to follow, while Quintana’s rivals for overall victory all held fire, mindful, perhaps, that the slopes had yet to bite in earnest.
The combined efforts of Quintana and Dumoulin were enough for the leaders to open a sizeable gap over the fragmenting peloton, though Chaves managed to bound his way across to them by the time they reached the final two kilometres.
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