When I said a few days ago that the days look alike in this Vuelta 2009, I didn't expect this to be the case as well for today's stage. However, in this second stage in the form of an individual time trial the weather conditions were as bad as in the first stage: it was raining all day long close to Valencia and there was quite a lot of wind as well. The rain did however, in contrast to the first stage, won by Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) in Assen in The Netherlands, not give an advantage to some riders since all riders did their time trial in the same bad weather conditions; however the wind might have played a more important role.

In this solo effort, Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) was again the best rider today on the 30 kilometers around Valencia, beating David Millar with 32 seconds.

After a first best time for the Dutch rider Lars Boom (Rabobank), it was up to the French rider Christophe Riblon of the AG2R La Mondiale team who took over the lead by beating the Dutch rider's best time with 6 seconds. The time trial world champion, Bert Grabsch, than took 17 seconds on the French rider before being beat for 4 seconds by another time trial specialist, David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream).

The Spanish rider Samuel Sanchez, Olympic road champion, did a very good time trial by taking the spot behind Bert Grabsch at 11 seconds from the German rider. The White-Russian rider of the Caisse d'Epargne team, Vasil Kiryienka, than took the place between those two riders by beating Sanchez for just one second. A bit later there was a bit surprise: David Herrero (Xacobeo Galicia) took over this place and finished at only 4 seconds behind Grabsch.

Daniele Bennati was doing a very good individual time trial but he unfortunately got a flat tyre. He finished finally in the same time as Alexander Vinokourov (Astana), 1'12" behind Cancellara.

The former leader of the general classification, André Greipel, who started at 5.04PM, finished 67th at 2'37" behind Fabian Cancellara.

The rankings

Stage
The difference are quite important in this stage with over one minute time difference between number 1 and number 10 in this 30 kilometer long time trial!

1/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) 36m41s
2/ David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream) - 0'32"
3/ Bert Grabsch (Columbia-HTC) - 0'36"
4/ David Herrero (Xacobeo Galicia) - 0'40"
5/ Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) - 0'46"
6/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) - 0'47"
7/ Thomas Danielson (Garmin-Slipstream) - 0'50"
8/ Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) - 0'53"
9/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 0'59"
10/ Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) - 1'02"

General classification
Among the big favourites in this Tour of Spain, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) wins the most time. Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) loses 3 seconds on the Australian rider Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) who finishes 15 seconds behind Sanchez.

Robert Gesink (Rabobank) loses 28 seconds on Cadel Evans.

Ivan Basso and Jacob Fuglsang lose the most time by finishing 41 seconds behind the Australian rider.

1/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) - 24h58m12s
2/ Tom Boonen (QuickStep) - 0'51"
3/ David Herrero (Xacobeo Galicia) - +0'59"
4/ Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) - +1'03"
5/ Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) - +1'08"
6/ Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) - +1'12"
7/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - +1'14"
8/ Thomas Danielson - +1'19"
9/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) - +1'20"
10/ David Millar (Garmin Slipstream) - +1'20"

17/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas) - +1'52"

19/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - +1'57"

21/ Jacob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank) - +2'03"

Ranking by points
1/ André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) - 84
2/ Tom Boonen (QuickStep) - 75
3/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin Slipstream) - 67
4/ Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 58
5/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) - 50

Best climber
1/ José Antonio Lopez Gil (Andalucia Cajasur) - 20
2/ Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel Euskadi) - 10
3/ Lars Boom (Rabobank) - 9
4/ Aitor Perez Arrieta (Contentpolis-Ampo) - 9
5/ Bingen Fernandez (Cofidis) - 8

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Cycling general (except Tour de France) | Vuelta a España | Vuelta a España 2009

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