On the day he turned 28, Matteo Trentin broke the ice and notched up his first win of the season.
The only thing better than winning is winning on your birthday, and that’s exactly what Matteo Trentin did on stage 2 of Vuelta a Burgos, which put on the table one of the few opportunities for sprinters to vie for victory at this year’s edition.
The Italian, who came at the start of the Spanish race two days after animating the RideLondon Classic, became the 13th different Quick-Step to score a win this season.
Quick-Step Floors did the bulk of the work during the 151km-long stage, controlling the seven-man breakaway which went clear moments after the start, keeping it on a leash and reeling it in inside the final 15 kilometers, before shutting down an attack of Gianni Moscon (Team Sky), who tried to foil the sprinters’ plans with four kilometers remaining.
In the finale, while all the other riders were crammed on the right side of the road, Matteo Trentin decided to go on the left and launched a fierce acceleration at the 250 meters-to-go mark, which carried him all the way to the line, where he punched the air as he enjoyed his maiden victory of the year.
“The guys did a really good job, helping me stay in position and be in front of the bunch with three kilometers to go. Having only two stages for the sprinters meant everybody wanted to be in up there and that made up for some crazy speeds in the closing meters. I went with 300 meters to go, because in this kind of sprints it’s always better to start earlier and I knew I could keep the speed up all the way to the line. Now it’s time for a nice celebration at the hotel, with a glass of wine and a steak”, said Trentin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfAhV-Ihp0w
Vuelta a Burgos 2017 – stage 2 results (Oña – Belorado):
| 1 | Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) | 3:38:54 |
| 2 | Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue Sport) | ,, |
| 3 | Tim Ariesen (Roompot – Nederlandse Loterij) | ,, |
| 4 | Romain Cardis (Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 5 | Pier Paolo De Negri (Nippo – Vini Fantini) | ,, |
| 6 | Raymond Kreder (Roompot – Nederlandse Loterij) | ,, |
| 7 | Armindo Fonseca (Fortuneo – Oscaro) | ,, |
| 8 | Eduard Prades (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | ,, |
| 9 | Christophe Noppe (Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise) | ,, |
| 10 | Aaron Gate (Aqua Blue Sport) | ,, |
General classification after stage 2:
| 1 | Mikel Landa (Team Sky) | 7:04:52 |
| 2 | Sergei Chernetski (Astana) | +02” |
| 3 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | +03” |
| 4 | Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) | +05” |
| 5 | Pier Paolo De Negri (Nippo – Vini Fantini) | +07” |
| 6 | Jetse Bol (Manzana Postobon) | ,, |
| 7 | Jonas Van Genechten (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 8 | Carlos Barbero (Movistar) | ,, |
| 9 | Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 10 | Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data) | ,, |
