The first major GC shake-up at the Amgen Tour of California took place during stage 2 on a 214.5km route that took the peloton up to 2,627 metres of altitude and included nearly 4,500 metres of climbing.
Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Kasper Asgreen won the stage after six hours of racing, while EF Education’s First’s Tejay van Garderen grabbed the yellow jersey by six seconds ahead of Gianni Moscon (Team Ineos) and seven seconds over Asgreen.
The list of virtual winners and losers in the GC game is somewhat longer.
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Of the pre-race GC favourites, Rally UHC’s Brandon McNulty came up worst on the day. The 21-year-old American was seventh at the Tour of California last year and recently won the overall at the Giro di Sicilia. In 2018, on a Tahoe course that was arguably more difficult than Monday’s stage, McNulty was an animator of the lead group and finished fourth on the stage.
Things were much different this year. McNulty struggled with the altitude and finished 57th, 8:07 behind Asgreen. He’s currently 48th overall at 8:13 and has seen his chances for another top result disappear. Rally UHC still have 34-year-old Canadian Rob Britton in the GC mix. Britton, who won the Tour of Utah in 2017, finished seventh on the stage, 27 seconds down on Asgreen, and is now sixth overall at 33 seconds.
The rest of the GC contenders fared better than McNulty, with most of them slotting into the top 18, separated by just 44 seconds.
Moving Forward
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